Dear Editor,
The Guyana Post Office Corporation (GPOC), is refuting statements made in an article published in the Tuesday, July 20, 2021 edition of the Kaieteur News newspaper, captioned ‘Hundreds of millions in old age pension payments unaccounted for at GPOC’. The article not only misrepresents the Corporation but insinuates poor accounting and accountability practices. This contravenes our standard operating procedures since the accounts for the pension payment are reconciled monthly and sent to the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security. This is a standard practice that has been in place prior to 2016.
To further clarify the issue at hand, it is necessary to note that the pension payment system operates as a revolving imprest. To this end GPOC must submit coupons on a weekly basis to the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security, which are then forwarded to the Ministry of Finance. This forms the cyclical process of the pension payments since coupons can be cashed throughout the month.
GPOC receives money from the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security which are paid out via coupons, these are then submitted to the Ministry for reimbursement. All coupons are verified and submitted. However, since the pension becomes payable at the beginning of every month, GPOC will have an advance of cash on hand to seamlessly continue the facilitation of pension payment at our 62 offices countrywide. Additionally, there are times when GPOC would cash coupons in good faith in advance of the cash provided to the Corporation. Thus, as at December 30, 2016 the advance amount as stated was utilized to encash coupons from the first working day of January 2017.
Over the years, additional systems were implemented to monitor the payment process and we are working with the ministry to implement a computerized system to facilitate daily financial updates.
The financial team at GPOC is prepared to sit with the Auditor General and the Ministry to address and clarify these inaccuracies and purported irreconcilable balance as highlighted in the article.
Yours faithfully,
Thalissa Grant-McClure
Public Relations Officer
Guyana Post Office Corporation