This is the third in a series of articles on the 2021 Auditor General’s report on the public accounts. The first article dealt with the certification of the financial statements comprising the public accounts; while in last week’s article we began coverage of the highlights of the report. So far, we have dealt with the following: overpayments to contractors/suppliers; contracts awarded to a blacklisted contractor; terminated contracts; cheques on hand; unpresented payment vouchers; and cheque order vouchers. In today’s article, we continue our discussion of the highlights of the report.
As regards unpresented payment vouchers, the Auditor General stated that 665 payment vouchers valued at $3.061 billion were not presented for audit examination, 656 of which valued at $3.050 billion or 99.6 percent relate to Ministries. The Guyana Defence Force (GDF), which accounted for 140 unpresented vouchers valued at $1.885 billion, explained that all payments are made by the Sub-Treasury attached to the GDF, and that the related vouchers ought to have been in the possession of that department which, it is to be noted, is part of the Ministry of Finance and thus independent of the Force.