Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Irfaan Ali has called for an audit of the $300 million Georgetown Restoration Programme after the 2015 Auditor General (AG) report found that 53% of the money spent was not certified by the accountant or any other authorised officer.
The Auditor General’s report revealed that after the examination of 212 payment vouchers, a number of discrepancies were noted, including the fact that there were 167 instances totaling $159.968 million where there was no evidence of the payment vouchers being certified either by the Account or any authorized officer; and that there were 140 payment vouchers totalling $143.682 million that were not approved by the city’s Treasurer.
City Treasurer Ron McCalman, at a PAC hearing on Monday, described the usual process for authorising payments. He explained that payment vouchers are required to be signed by the Treasurer as well as two authorised members of the city’s finance committee. From there, cheques are prepared and signed by the Treasurer and Town Clerk.
Permanent Secretary Emil McGarrell, when asked for an explanation, attributed the discrepancies to an “error” and an “oversight,” while noting that there were cases where authorised members of the finance committee would have signed the vouchers.
McCalman, dubbed the “pilot of the scenario” by Ali, was reminded of management’s response to what was referred to as a “systemic error.”
“We agree with the auditors and acknowledge that there was a systemic error and that there were instances where these vouchers were signed by the authorised members of the finance committee… however, that for a period, the finance committee, due to local government elections, was not in place,” he quoted the response.
Though acknowledging that he was aware of the payments, McCalman, could not state why protocol had not been followed in those instances.
Ali questioned how members of the finance committee could have authorised payments if the committee was not in place, and asked for records to be produced by the Council for analysis. McCalman asked that he be given time for further report.
Other discrepancies noted in the AG’s report were (1) There was no evidence of the Finance Committee approving 58 payments totalling $48.404m on 58 instances; (2) There was no evidence of receipt or payee acknowledgement for a payment of $750,000 to a contractor via cheque number 164407587; and (3) The basis of award of several contracts for the weeding of parapets, desilting of drains and cutting down of trees in various areas around Georgetown could not be determined due to the unavailability of the relevant supporting documents.
As a result, it could not be ascertained whether proper transparency and accountability was exercised in the awarding of the contracts.
The AG admitted that the office did have difficulty accessing information at City Hall in the past but stated that he has been working with Town Clerk Royston King on having full access to records.
Ali proposed that the AG’s office conduct a special audit on the Georgetown Restoration Programme and provide recommendations for moving forward.
