The Ministry of Indigen-ous Peoples’ Affairs has disclosed that the State Assets Recovery Unit (SARU) and the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) launched an investigation over a year ago into the spending from the Amerindian Purposes Fund (APF), which the audit office says is still not being properly managed.
The ministry made this disclosure in response to the findings of the Auditor General in the report on the public accounts for 2017, which says the ministry has failed to put measures in place for the proper use, record keeping and management of the fund.
The report, which was recently tabled in the National Assembly, noted that the APF was established in the year 2000, in keeping with provisions of the Amerindian Act. The Act was later repealed and the new legislation does not in itself provide for the operation of the Fund.
Nonetheless, it noted that the original Act required the preparation of financial statements and an audit by the Auditor General, which while not captured in the current legislation are best practice requirements of any accounting process, although they were never satisfied since the establishment of the Fund.
The report pointed out that while the current Act has no provision for the operation of the APF, the Ministry “failed to put measures in place for the proper use, record keeping and management of the Fund.” It further said that over the years “observations were made in relation to the significant sums of moneys which [were] received and expended from the APF and the Ministry’s continued poor financial management of the Fund.”
It noted that during the examination of the ministry’s cash book for the period under review (January 1st to December 31st, 2017), it was discovered that it was written up to May of 2017. Further, the cash book was not balanced since an opening balance as at January 1st, 2017, was not reflected.
Audit examination
An analysis of the receipts and payment vouchers presented for audit examination, the report said, revealed that the sum of $68.089M million was received as revenue and the sum of $53.936 million was expended as at 31st December 2017. “The bank statements however, showed an opening balance of ($716,252) as at 1 January 2017 and a closing balance as at 31 December 2017 of $20.240M,” the report states.
Further, the ministry did not perform any reconciliation of the cash book balance with the bank statement balance in respect of the APF bank account; it was last reconciled in November, 2009.
In its response, the ministry explained that SARU, SOCU and the Ministry of Finance’s Internal Auditor were looking at the matter, having launched an investigation in June, 2017. It promised that at the conclusion of the investigation and audits that are underway, the ministry will forward their findings to the Audit Office.
Auditor General Deodat Sharma has recommended that the ministry ensure that the fund is reconciled at the earliest opportunity.
Additionally, an examination of the ministry’s accounts found that the sum of $3.472 million was inadvertently deposited into the bank account operated by the fund. That amount was still in the account at the time of reporting.
Expenditure
Meanwhile, according to the breakdown of the expenditure from the APF for the period under review, $25.675 million was spent for Hururu Village expenses; $11.594 million was for the Community Service Officer (CSO) stipend; $5.5 million for building and rehab projects; $4.865 million was for advances; $3.817 million was for assets purchased; $1.226 million was for events expenses; $578,000 was spent on other expenses; $441,000 was spent on other projects; and $240,000 was spent on salaries. The total spent, the report said, was $53.936 million.
The money spent for Hururu Village covered various expenses, including the salary for 11 persons, a number of grants, transportation, allowances, the purchase of a generator and part payment for an outboard engine.
The CSO stipend, the report explained, covered the travelling expenses for 16 executives and 208 individuals attending the National Toshaos Confer-ence in Georgetown.
The money spent for the building and rehabilitation projects was used for the construction of a Pavilion at Aranka, construction of a guest house at Chinese Landing and the construction of a Village Office at Kurutuku.
While the report said that up to December 31st, 2017, no progress reports were submitted in respect of the completion of the three projects, the ministry said in response that it received reports from two of the projects and they were available for the auditor’s verification.
With regard to the money for advances, the report points out that during the years 2015 and 2016 74 advances, totalling $39.652 million and 65 advances, totalling $64.727 million, were still to be recovered.
For the period under review, advances totalling $4.865 million were issued from the fund. Included in the figure were amounts totalling $320,000 representing seven salary advances and 13 advances totalling $4.545 million for ministerial travel to the Paramakatoi Tomato Project in Region Eight, Presidential and Ministerial visits to Region Nine, Canadian Visas for 14 persons to participate in Guyana Day 2017, Ministerial visits to regions One, and Two and for the holding of elections in Orealla.
Six of the advances, the report says, were partly cleared and there is an outstanding balance of $619,700.
In response, the ministry acknowledged Sharma’s findings and explained that it has so far cleared 42 advances, leaving a balance of 23 advances for 2016. The ministry is presently taking steps to reduce this further.
With regard to assets purchased, the report said the money was used to acquire a tractor, three chainsaws, wooden materials for a boat and the construction of a boat, a brush cutter, a sewing machine.
Evidence was not seen whereby the ministry received the tractor, fuel and lubricant for the tractor, wooden materials for the boat and the boat, the report said.
The ministry, in response, acknowledged the findings made in respect to the assets purchased and promised to be more efficient in the future. The ministry also explained that efforts are being made to start a comprehensive update on its Procurement/Stores/Fixed Asset registers and this exercise is expected to be completed by December, 2018.
The audit office recommended that the ministry ensure strict adherence to the requirements of the stores regulations.