-Auditor General’s report
Deficiencies in the computer software package commissioned by City Hall to efficiently administer rates collection by the municipality may have compromised the entire rates collection system according to the recently completed report by the Office of the Auditor General arising out of a special investigation into the operations of the City Treasurer’s Department.
And the report has recommended that City Hall move to correct any underpayment or overpayment of rates that may have occurred as a result of deficiencies in the computer software.
The report, which has severely criticized aspects of the management of the financial affairs of the municipality and which led to a decision by Council to send both Town Clerk Beulah Williams and City Treasurer Roderick Edinboro on leave also noted that the Consultant recruited by City Hall to design the software remained on the job for five years after his recruitment. “It is obvious from the findings that the rates software is not working properly. As a result we are unable to determine if rate payers are paying the correct amounts or if they are being billed accurately,” the report added.
The findings of the Auditor General’s report raises critical questions about the effectiveness with which rates remittances, City Hall’s main source of income, is being managed.
The Auditor General’s report also cites “the unavailability of a manual for the operation of all the software developed by the consultant noting that the consultant was, in effect, “holding the Council at ransom” since he was the only person who understood the system and could attempt to correct any problems when they arose.
Noting that the contract through which the consultant was engaged specified no deliverables, the report said that this was a reflection of the imprudent manner in which the City Treasurer’s Department was being run.
Meanwhile the report has alluded to the continual purchase of computers “that were not in accordance with the recommended brand.” The report noted that while the recommended brand of computer was Compaq other brands of computers and processors were purchased without consulting with the Information Systems department. “The City Treasurer did not offer any explanation for this occurrence,” the report added.
Last week, less than twenty-four hours prior to the Council meeting which led to her being sent on leave, Williams told Stabroek Business that the report had drawn attention to some “clear loopholes” in “some aspects of the administration of the municipality.” She said that while she herself had to accept responsibility for some of the deficiencies alluded to in the report, it was in effect a “wake up call” for the entire municipality. Williams had told Stabroek Business during last week’s interview that she expected to be taken to task over the findings of the report.
Meanwhile a City Hall source has told Stabroek Business that “the sense of indiscipline” that informed aspects of the administration of City Hall may well have arisen out of “serious divisions” between members of the Council and officers of the municipality, “particularly the public differences between the Mayor and the Town Clerk”. Asked about the implications of the report’s findings on the likelihood that the deficiencies in the software may have led to inaccurate rates payments the source said that any such inaccuracies cannot be easily corrected.
The report into the operations of the City Treasurer’s Department was initiated by Mayor Hamilton Green who wrote to the Office of the Auditor General requesting the investigation and apprised the Audit Manager responsible for the investigation of specific matters of concern to the Council.
