Retrieval of monies from the GRA and the NIS was the key issue queried with Region Seven officials at yesterday’s Public Accounts Committee’s consideration of the 2010 report of the Auditor General.
The atmosphere yesterday was significantly less explosive when compared to the previous two sessions.
Peter Ramotar, Regional Executive Officer for (Cuyuni/Mazaruni) headed a panel representing the Regional Democratic Coun-cil.
The major bone of contention during yesterday’s session involved deductions totalling $186,923 and $329,115 which were paid over to the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) and the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) respectively, in respect to unclaimed net salaries for the years 2008 and 2009. Furthermore, it was uncovered that deductions of $87,162 and $210,295 paid over to the NIS and GRA respectively for the year 2010 were also not recovered. Monies are also to be retrieved for the period 2005-2007.
According to Ramotar, these amounts were the result of payments made into the accounts of individuals who had left the job without notifying the RDC. Ramotar said that the geography of Region Seven makes it very hard to obtain information about such matters in a timely manner. He explained that in many instances, the RDC is only informed of the desertion by its staff when personnel from the RDC journey to far-flung areas to make payments. He said that it is not uncommon for these trips to last as much as a week, by which time the payments would already have been made. As such, GRA and NIS deductions would also be made and paid to the agencies.
He said that an agreement which the RDC has with the commercial banks in the Region allowed for the recovery of net salaries paid into the accounts of the individuals who were no longer with the RDC.
Ramotar shared that amounts totalling$35,200 and $186,923 respectively for the years 2005-2007 and 2008-2009 had been recovered from the GRA, but that efforts to recoup the remaining amounts were still ongoing.
He said that there has been no response from the NIS although the RDC continues to send regular correspondence.
A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) MP, Michael Scott, responding to the explanation, dismissed it as unacceptable. He said that he refuses to believe that recovering deductions paid to NIS and GRA was as hard as the REO was suggesting.
Scott has taken this position on several prior occasions when other government agencies appeared before the PAC with similar occurrences. Scott alluded to a process of cross-checking which should avail the RDC the ability to recoup the amounts within a month.
To avoid recurrences of this problem, People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) MP, Gail Teixeira suggested the use of radios which would allow the RDC to communicate with its outlying personnel, who would be able to communicate such information in a more timely fashion.
This, she said, would increase the intelligence of the RDC and enable it to make more informed decisions.
There were also questions asked about approval not being obtained for the writing off of the loss of fuel valued at $1.398M for the years 2001-2006. Ramotar ex-plained that investigations had revealed that the loss occurred as a result of leakage and seepage of the fuel from the containers in which they were being stored. Inefficiencies in the recording of the amount of fuel in storage was also said to be one of the contributing factors. PPP/C MP Bibi Shadick was quick to urge the REO to bring a speedy conclusion to this particular matter since this was not the first time the issue was being brought to the PAC
She said that the RDC needs to make more concerted efforts to have this loss written off so that it will cease to appear in the Auditor General’s Report.
The final matter was the inability of the Regional Administration to maintain historical records of serviceable vehicles in its possession.
According to the Auditor General’s report, log books were not properly written up in that pertinent information had not been recorded.
The RDC said that it regretted the delinquency but said that this occurred because the requirements which have been laid out do not necessarily take into consideration the type of vehicles which the RDC has in its possession. Ramotar ex-plained that the RDC has 16 vehicles, 10 of which are boats, and that the partial information in the log books is as a result of equipment operators not fully understanding all the columns, hence not properly recording every required entry. The RDC said that this is compounded by the rapid turnover of staff, particularly in the remote areas of the region (Upper and Middle Mazaruni).
Each of the above mentioned issues, along with the region’s failure to take steps to dispose of a number of unserviceable items was raised again in the Auditor General’s 2011 Report which to be considered later by the PAC. It was also stated that the region was still awaiting a valuation of the heavy-duty vehicles/equipment to expedite the process.
In this case however, the RDC shared that it had been granted approval to proceed with the disposal of some of the unserviceable items which were all destroyed in the prescribed manner. It also said that since the report, the Ministry of Local Govern-ment has carried out an inspection of unserviceable vehicles and other pieces of equipment and has prepared a report which is to be sent to the Works Ministry for recommendations on how to dispose of the items.
