Georgetown: Evidence of overpayment of contractors on various contracts in 2010 were detected by the office of the Auditor General in a number of Government entities and Regions including the Guyana Defence Force, the Ministry of Education, the Supreme Court, Regions Six, Nine and 10. This is according to the 2010 Auditor General Report which was presented to the National Assembly by Speaker of the House, Raphael Trotman, on Friday.
The Report outlines that a significant amount of overpayments to contractors had occurred on measured works for contracts undertaken by Ministers, Departments and Regions with several Ministries and Regions facing serious challenges in being able to recover amounts overpaid in various contracts in prior periods.
One such example was recorded under Region 10, where amounts totalling $20.603M were overpaid on 16 projects. “This continued trend coupled with no evidence to suggest that disciplinary action of any kind had been meted out to engineering or other staff involved in the assessment of works in progress and the certification of progress payments is troubling and hints at management perceived inaction to remedy the current situation,” was the sentiment stated in the Report.
The Report went on to point to the fact that a number of Ministries, Departments and Regions have continued to clear cheque ordered vouchers long after the stipulated 16 days, while some still have a number of cheque orders outstanding at the time of reporting. In this regard, and most notable were, the Guyana Defence Force with 535 cheque orders valued at $1.206 billion; Region One, Barima/Waini, with 2,057 cheque orders valued at $826.085; Region Three, Essequibo Islands/West Demerara, with 850 cheque orders valued $186.204M and Region Four, Demerara/Mahaica, with 565 cheque orders valued at $84.144M remaining outstanding.
These financial instruments, according to the Report, were originally meant to be utilized only for the payment of salaries and allowances but because of limited imprest resources and the volatility of cash transaction in recent times. As such the use was extended to the procurement of goods with the approval of the Accountant General. “Such instruments remaining outstanding for long periods of time would therefore bring into question whether the sums involved had been misappropriated or wrongly applied,” the Report stated.
It was revealed too that the slow processing of pay change directives in several Ministries and mainly in the Regions resulted in overpayments of salaries and the related deductions being inadvertently paid over to various agencies. Ministries, Departments and Regions, the Report notes, have faced serious challenges in recovering such sums, particularly because banking institutions require authorizations from account holders to do so and statutory agencies, such as, the Guyana Revenue Authority and National Insurance Scheme had not fully complied with requests to refund sums overpaid.
Some Ministries, Departments and Regions also recorded overstatements on their Appropriation Accounts for a number of reasons which included but was not limited to Subvention Agencies not returning unexpended amounts to the Consolidated Fund through Subject Ministries in order to facilitate adjustments to the account.
Additionally, the Report reveals that the continued lack of reporting and accounting for all gifts to Ministries, Departments and Regions resulted in the Miscellaneous Receipts of $14.557 billion as at December 31, 2010 being understated by an undetermined amount.
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