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Primary school students steal $1.8M

 
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NINE students from a Region Nine primary school sometime this year stole $1.802M, the Auditor General’s Report on the Public Accounts of Guyana and on the accounts of ministries, departments and regions for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2016, said.
At the time of reporting in September 2017, $700,000 was repaid, leaving the sum of $1.102M to be recovered. The matter is currently engaging the attention of the court.
“The parents of the students had entered into an agreement to repay the amount stolen on a monthly basis commencing from April 2017,” the report said.
Meanwhile, at the Maruranau Primary School, also in Region Nine, the sum of $1.524M was misappropriated by the former headmaster in 2012. Thus far, the sum of $230, 200 was recovered, leaving $1.294M outstanding.

The Auditor General’s report noted that for all the schools visited, the receipts and payments cash books were not properly written up. It was also observed that there was a lack of segregation of duties in relation to the storekeeping procedures, while stock ledgers and goods received books were not properly written up and maintained.
“There was no evidence of the records being checked by any member of the management committee of the school… meetings were not held by the management committee,” the report added.

Additionally, the treasurers kept unspent balances in their personal possession and bank accounts were not reconciled for the period under review.
The Ministry of Finance has since been informed of the matter and action has been taken to have deductions made from the head master’s gratuity. As it relates to the other lapses, the ministry said corrective action has been taken.
Notwithstanding that, the Audit Office has recommended that the ministry ensure strict adherence to the financial instructions and requirements of the stores and financial regulations.

That aside, in the case of security grants amounts totalling $302.819M were expended on security services for nursery, primary, secondary and post-secondary or tertiary education.
An audit examination carried out on a sample of 18 schools revealed that the bank accounts were not reconciled, security services were paid in advance by the schools, no contractual agreements were entered into with the security firms and cash books were not properly maintained by the schools.
The head of the budget agency has since advised that corrective action has been taken this year. The Audit Office has recommended that the ministry comply with the financial regulations.

Additionally, amounts totalling $322.829M were paid to eight private security firms for security provided to 34 locations. However, contract documents and tender board awards were not presented for audit examination.

“Therefore, it could not be determined whether tender procedures were followed to select the security firms and also whether payments were made in accordance with the conditions of the contract,” the report stated.
The head of the budget agency has since explained that contract documents would be made available to the Audit Office.

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