A total of just over half a billion dollars was not paid over last year to the Consolidated Fund by 13 Ministries/ Departments as is required by law, the Auditor-General’s report for 2014 has found.
In the report, which was tabled in the National Assembly last Thursday, Auditor General Deodat Sharma said there was a “significant increase” in breaches of legislation, such as the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act, which requires any unspent balance of public moneys issued out of the Consolidated Fund to be returned.
However, the report noted that 22 Ministries/Departments breached the requirements of the Act, with 13 of them breaching the section that stipulated that unspent money should be returned and surrendered to the Consolidated Fund.
It said Ministries/Departments have not paid over amounts totalling $544.8M, of which the sum of $135.4 M is related to 280 cheques still on hand, while the difference of $409.369M was held in four bank accounts.
In addition, the report said eight Ministries/Departments breached Section 80 of the Act, which stipulates that “the concerned Minister shall, within two months following the receipt of the annual report, present the annual report of each statutory body to the National Assembly.” Further, these Ministries/Departments did not lay reports in the National Assembly for over 42 Agencies.
Sharma also pointed out that in previous reports, he highlighted instances where the criteria were not fully met for advances issued from the Contingencies Fund as defined in Section 41 (3) of the Act. “While it has been observed that there has been closer monitoring of these advances, the situation still existed and for the year under review, nine advances, totalling $961.878M, were issued that did not meet the criteria,” he said.
Sharma also pointed out that the new Consolidated Fund bank account which was opened in January 2004, with a transfer of $5 billion from the old Consolidated Fund, was in overdraft. “As at 31 December, 2014, the bank account reflected an overdraft balance of $29.942 billion, while the cash book reflected an overdraft balance of $47.263 billion. This represents an increase of $27.887 billion and $25.783 billion, respectively, over the 2013 balances,” he said.
According to the report, there were also several breaches of the Stores Regulations, especially as it relates to the maintenance of stipulated records, including Stores Ledgers and Bin Cards, historical records for vehicles/equipment, and Master and Sectional Inventories, among others. It added that while some records were poorly maintained, in that pertinent information was not recorded, others were not kept.
It was noted too that a substantial amount of items has not been delivered, even though payments were made since 2014. “A significant amount of the outstanding items relates to drugs, medical supplies and related costs. Items had also not been supplied in relation to payments made in prior periods. There continued to be weak and in some cases the absence of some aspects of internal controls systems,”
Sharma also found that recoveries of overpayments on contracts for prior periods were minimal. “Whilst the number of occurrences reduced, the value of overpayments on contracts increased by over $9M in 2014, when compared to that of 2013. There was a twenty-nine percent decrease in the value of overpayments on net salaries and deductions in 2014 when compared to 2013,” the report said.
The report also said that 228 payment vouchers, valued $201M, were not produced for audit in 2014. Similarly, payment vouchers valued $228.5 M were not produced for audit in 2013. As a result, it could not be ascertained whether value was received for the sums involved, and whether it has been used for the purposes intended, the report said.
According to Sharma, each year his Office issues recommendations to Ministries, Departments and Regions that are designed to improve systems and practices at these entities and improve the government’s governance and accountability mechanisms. 318 recommendations were made in the 2013 Audit Report.
“We reviewed each recommendation to determine what action, if any, was taken by the respective Accounting Officers. At the time of reporting, 76 (24%) of the 318 recommendations were implemented, and 77 (24%) partially implemented, while the remaining 165 (52%) were not implemented,” he said.
“Overall, I am concerned with the lack of action towards the implementation of these recommendations; since, fifty-two percent of the recommendations have not yet been implemented. In addition, in many instances, recommendations are repeated each year without appropriate action and as a result, weaknesses and issues that impact negatively on Government’s governance and accountability mechanisms continue to occur. Once again, I encourage the Government, through the Ministry of Finance, the Accountant General’s Department and the respective Accounting Officers of the Ministries, Departments and Regions to take appropriate actions and put measures in place to address the recommendations made in my prior report and this year as well,” Sharma declared.
