The Supreme Court of Judicature came under fire yesterday from the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) after over $14 million that was discovered outstanding more than a decade ago remained unaccounted for.
The irregularities were uncovered by the Auditor General at various Magisterial Districts during 1995 to 2001 and estimated losses amounting to $14.476 million remained outstanding. Though matters involving sums totaling $94,000 were dismissed, more than $14 million are still to be accounted for, according to the 2012 Auditor General’s report, which the PAC is examining.
“This matter has been with us for years…This doesn’t seem to have an end,” PPP/C MP Bibi Shadick noted yesterday. She then questioned, “More recently, after this, did we have any other instances of irregularities with monies?”
Rashid Mohamed, acting Registrar of the Supreme Court, responded in the affirmative and explained that there was a recent issue at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts, where an employee was arrested and convicted.
Mohamed was referring to Tiffany Peters, who was found guilty on October 13, of this year, of embezzling in excess of $3 million from the “Maintenance”
bank account of the court. Peters has since appealed.
However, Shadick noted that a conviction did not mean that the Supreme Court would be getting back any money and asked Mohamed just what is being done to procure the cash.
“The court did not tell the person that they have to repay the money; the Supreme Court now has to file a civil matter to [recover] the sum of money from the person who was convicted,” Shadick advised.
Mohamed was further questioned on new systems put in place since the initial irregularities cropped up: “What systems have been put in place after this whole story in the early 90s and 2000 and what happened that the system didn’t work?
What broke down? Something had to have broken down to cause another person to breach,” Shadick said.
According to Mohamed, the only system that has been put in place is the rotation of staff, along with strict supervision.
However, it was noted that this was insufficient. “I would want to suggest to you that you have someone look at your systems… because this sends a very, very bad message that in the court system itself this could be happening; you’re prosecuting people for this and your staff have been perpetrating these very misdemeanours,” Chairman Carl Greenidge noted.
When concerns were raised on whether taxpayers were suffering from the missing monies, Mohamed assured that they were not, particularly the women collecting child support.
“So how did you manage to do that? Where did you take money from to fill that hole?” Shadick questioned.
“This account is a very large account and not everyone comes at the same time,” Mohamed explained.
“So you dig a hole!” Shadick immediately responded. “This looking like you collecting and somebody come next week and you pay. So what you collect you pay,” she said.
The Supreme Court was also bashed for the misplacement of affiliation, criminal and civil case jackets in the Georgetown, West Demerara and East Demerara Magisterial Districts, which remained an issue and was compounded by the fact that the register of case jackets did not contain information on the movement of case jackets. For the year 2012, over 2,800 case jackets were noted as outstanding.
Though a register was put in place to monitor the movement of all case jackets, the problem still exists. However, Mohamed said, the list has been significantly reduced.
Concern was also raised over the overpayment of hundreds of thousands of dollars to some employees for the years 2009 to 2011. This problem also featured when the PAC considered the Auditor General’s findings for both the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs and the Guyana Elections Commission (Gecom) yesterday.
‘Special attention’
In the case of the Amerindian Affairs Ministry, it was noted that the sum of $7.869 million was overpaid to a contractor on a project undertaken by the ministry but it was never recovered.
“Approval was given by the [National Procurement and Tender Administration Board] to waive Tender Board procedures in awarding the contract for the excavation, land filling, construction of drains and concrete works at student dorms, Liliendaal. The contract was awarded in the sum of $14 million and the full amount was paid to the contractor. Based on physical verification on site, it was revealed that a sum of $7.869 million was overpaid,” the Auditor General observed.
In response, the ministry explained that the contractor was made aware of this overpayment but subsequently lost contact with the contractor. “The ministry has written to the contractor indicating his indebtedness to the ministry and has requested an immediate refund or to resolve this claim of overpayment by September 30, 2014; to date, the ministry is yet to receive a response,” it said.
Shadick strongly advised the agencies to hold staff members who slip up and allow overpayments to be penalised for their shortcomings.
The ministry was further harangued for its poor recordkeeping and inability to address previously observed issues; the committee learnt yesterday that with regard to many of the problems highlighted in previous years, “the position remains the same.”
“It doesn’t look good on the ministry when the AG has to tell us that the position remains the same,” Shadick emphasised to Permanent Secretary of the ministry Nigel Dharamlall.
“I’m aware that at the end of 2013 a considerable amount of money was given to the ministry…you have a lot of responsibility on your shoulders and a lot of people will be looking at you,” Greenidge added. He further warned, “Make sure that you don’t come back the next time with these types of problems. There’s going to be special attention… for the reason that you have exceptional funds made available to you.”
