…Auditor General to launch fresh probe
Missing payment vouchers that were flagged in the Auditor General’s (AG) 2019 report have been found over four years after the Audit Office of Guyana (AOG) inspected the Region Nine (Upper Takutu/Upper Essequibo) sub-treasury safe, with Account General Jennifer Chapman making it clear that she will do checks of her own into the documents.
During a Public Accounts Committee (PAC) sitting on Monday, the committee examined paragraph 1468 of the AG’s 2019 report, where it was reported that 394 cheques, totaling $275.3 million, were found during an inspection of the sub-treasury safe in January 2020.
According to the report, “Section 43 of the Fiscal Management and Accountability (FMA) Act 2003 states that at the end of each fiscal year, any unexpended balance of public moneys issued out of the Consolidated Fund shall be returned and surrendered to the Consolidated Fund. Audit checks revealed that 405 cheques totaling $345.444 million were printed on behalf of the Regional Administration for the 31 December 2019.”
“An inspection of the Sub-Treasury’s safe on the 21 January 2020 revealed that there were 394 cheques on hand totaling $275.380 million. However, no evidence of Payment Vouchers and related documents were seen in respect of thirty-eight cheques totaling $1.706 million. As a result, we could not determine whether Section 31 of the FMA Act was fully complied with.”
So, what happened to the documents for these 38 cheques? Well, it is here that Region Nine Regional Executive Officer (REO) Carl Singh made a surprising disclosure. According to Singh, those payment vouchers have now made a reappearance… over four years after the Audit Office inspected the safe.
“The documents were provided to the Audit Office Mr Chairman, during the inspection of the safe at sub treasury in January, the Audit Office basically did a walk through and did not do a thorough check. That’s the reason Mr Chairman. But subsequently those vouchers were (found).”
The REO admitted that at the time of the inspection, the sub-treasury officers did not have the documents in their possession. Under further questioning from the PAC, Singh further admitted that the documents were only recovered three months ago, after all payments were made… well over four years after the inspection.
Meanwhile, Accountant General Jennifer Chapman professed to being as surprised as the other members of the PAC. It was agreed that the REO would send a list of those vouchers to her office, to allow for her to do her own investigation into whether the cheques and vouchers can be reconciled.
“Based on the REO’s response, REO can you send me the list of vouchers please? So that I can do my own investigation on those 38 vouchers? Because I’m just as confused as every other member of PAC right now, with your response.”
When it comes to regions holding on to cheques totaling large sums of money, Region Nine is not unique. In Region One (Barima-Waini), a whopping 333 cheques totaling $133.9 million were found in a safe in the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) office… with no supporting documents and just two months before the 2020 General and Regional Elections.
While the Region subsequently did send documents to the audit office for verification, in many cases these documents resulted in even more queries, queries the region did not satisfactorily answer.
Last month, it had also been announced that a team of Auditors from the AOG would be sent into Bartica, Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni), to acquire and examine documents that pertain to over $111 million in cheques found in a safe, a situation that was highlighted by AG Deodat Sharma, in his 2019 report. (G3)
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