Auditor General (AG) Deodat Sharma has highlighted a litany of irregularities in the execution of the 2015 Georgetown Restoration Programme, which has cost the treasury nearly a billion dollars over the four years it has existed.
According to the 2018 Auditor General’s report, which has been seen by Stabroek News, the special audit of the initial $300 million allocation remains incomplete as the Georgetown Mayor and City Council are yet to respond to the findings communicated on May 31, 2018.
Among the 18 discrepancies found in the expenditure of the first $300 million was the award of 12 contracts totalling $21 million to one contractor, contrary to the apparent stipulated maximum of four contracts to one contractor and the un-validated payments of $42 million to 27 contracts.
Additionally, the Audit Office was not provided with applications for 25 contracts amounting to $37.5 million and found 11 instances where contractors may have provided false addresses to satisfy the criterion of having to reside within the area where the work was to be done.
The special audit was requested by the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Irfaan Ali, after the then City Treasurer Ron McCalman could not explain the “systemic error” which resulted in, among other things, 167 instances totaling $159.968 million where there was no evidence of the payment vouchers being certified either by the accountant or any authorised officer.
The sum allocated was intended for the improvement of the environment, health and well-being of the citizens of Georgetown.
Though City Hall has claimed that the total was expended on the purchase of a vehicle, the de-bushing of Le Repentir Cemetery and the Restoration of Georgetown, the Audit Office during its investigation found that the correctness, accuracy and validity of the payment of $52.163 million made by the Communities Ministry to a contractor for 103.80% variation works on three contracts could not be verified.
It also found a breach of Section 43 of the Fiscal Management and Accountability (FMA) Act whereby the sum of $102.637 million was paid over to the Council in 2016 from the 2015 Appropriations.
Notably the Council utilised the amount paid over from the 2015 Appropriations, $241.637 million of the allotted amount, for expenses incurred over the period November, 2015 to February, 2018. “This is an indication that the Restoration Grant to the Council was not utilised as intended,” the Auditor General concluded.
City Hall submitted for examination 261 Payment Vouchers for expenses totalling $247.558 million, a sum $5.921 million more than the $241.637 million paid over to the Council.
“Expenditure totalling $182.610 million were not certified by the relevant officer; The City Treasurer’s approval was not evident on seven Payment Vouchers totalling $8.304 million; the Finance Committee’s full approval was not evident on 21 Payment Vouchers totalling $30 million; there was no evidence of acknowledgement from payees for payments totalling $12.816 million, the correctness, accuracy and validity of five payments totalling $4.890M could not be verified and six payments totalling $15.7M were made on six contracts that were above the $1.5M contract ceiling for the clean-up programme,” the report says.
The Audit Office indicated that since the Contract Register was not properly written up, with several contracts not recorded therein and key information, including payments on contracts, not recorded, it could not ascertain whether a transparent system was used for the awarding of contracts.
Concerns about the expenditure continued into 2016, when $200 million was allocated.
The Ministry and the Council signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on December 30th, 2016, whereby the Ministry was to provide funding in the sum of $175.200 million for the Georgetown Restoration Initiatives, including the rehabilitation of Kitty Market; the Constabulary Training School; the City Engineer’s Building; the Constabulary Headquarters Building; and the Albouystown Clinic.
It was found that the Ministry breached Section 43 of the FMA Act whereby there was an overstatement of the Appropriation Accounts of $175.200 million, which resulted from 2016 Appropriations being transferred to the Council in January 2017.
Additionally the Council did not produce evidence to account for amounts totalling $70.489 million, including $28.826 million spent on the Kitty Market and $19.973 million spent on the Constabulary Training School.
Notably despite this expenditure the Constabulary Training School was found to be in a state of disrepair when it was visited in October 2018 by Retired Justice Cecil Kennard as part of the Commission of Inquiry into the management of the City. The building, according to the City Administration, has been abandoned due to its dilapidated state.
According to the AGs report, the payroll costs amounting to $30.575 million and the receipt of building materials amounting to $30.562 million, could not be verified in relation to the 2016 projects.
Accounting for the project improved in 2018, when the sum of $200 million was allotted.
A total of $188.999 million was expended on the purchase of a garbage truck, the purchase of a tractor and trailer, the rehabilitation of the East Ruimveldt Market’s sanitary block and the payment of the 2% withholding tax. A sum of $11.001 million remained unspent.
