A nearly $100m vessel for the fisheries department of the Ministry of Agriculture has not been in use since 2020 as the personnel needed are not available.
This was the explanation given by the Ministry of Agriculture in the 2022 Report of the Office of the Auditor General which was tabled in parliament two Mondays ago.
The audit office report said that a contract was awarded by the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board in December 2018 in the sum of $99.3m. Amounts totalling $98.5m were paid on the contract as at December 31, 2020 and the vessel was received in April 2020.
“…however, at the time of reporting it was not put into use”, the audit office said. When asked for an explanation, the Head of the Budget Agency said that the Fisheries Department has indicated that the marine vessel “has not been operationalized as yet due to the lack of skilled personnel”.
The audit office recommended that the ministry take steps to recruit the relevant personnel.
