State auditors could not verify over $800M in Govt. payments in 2018
– Public Infrastructure main culprit in overpayments
– St. Rose’s High contractor received $53M; work abandoned
The Auditor General’s report of 2018 has revealed that over $800M in payments could not be verified for that year.
According to the report which was leaked yesterday, unrepresented payment vouchers resulted in the limitation in scope of audits.
“Five hundred and eighty-two payment vouchers totaling $811.757M were not presented for audit. Five hundred and nine totaling $741.695M were in respect to the Ministry of the Presidency, Ministry of Indigenous People’s Affairs, Ministry of Natural Resources, Guyana Defence Force and Ministry of Social Protection, while 73 valued $70.062M were in respect of the regions,” the report disclosed.
The report was handed late last year over to the Parliament but has not been made public as there were no sittings.
Included in the amounts for regions were 40 payment vouchers valued $61.151M or approximately 87% of the total value for Region 9.
“As a result, it could not be ascertained whether value was received for the sums involved, and whether it has been used for the purposes intended.”
The vouchers would be critical in verifying not only what the payment was for, but also, more importantly, who received the money.
Over the years, reports under consecutive administrations have been highlighting deviations from established procurement procedures and major breaches of accountability and transparency.
The annual report provides a summary of the audit results of the examination of the Public
Accounts statements and of the accounts of the ministries, departments and regions for the
fiscal year ended 31 December 2018.
According to the report, state auditors found overpayments amounting to $166.076M made in respect of measured works on 90 contracts administered by ministries, departments and regions in 2018.
Amounts totalling $73.709M were in relation to the regions, of which $56.528M or approximately 77% were from Regions Two, Eight, Nine and Ten.
As it relates to the ministries/departments, it was found that the Ministry of Public Infrastructure was biggest culprit.
A total of $92.367M in overpayments were noted, of which amounts totalling $63.741M and $8.330M or approximately 69% and 9% were from the Ministry of Public Infrastructure and the Ministry of Social Protection, respectively.
At the time of reporting in September 2019, the audit report said, a total of $20.041M was recovered.
“Of this sum, $10.503M and $9.538M were in respect of ministries/departments and regions,
respectively. Taking these repayments into account, overpayments totalling $146.035M remained outstanding.”
As it relates to advance payments to contractors and the non-commencement of works, state auditors discovered that one contractor received an advance payment of $53M in 2018 from the
Ministry of Education for the construction of St. Rose’s High School.
“At the time of reporting in September 2019, the site was abandoned and no construction works had commenced. Also discovered were several instances where capital works totalling $71.042M were completed and charged to current expenditure. Six such instances totalling $36.028M
(approximately 51%) were under the Ministry of Education.”
