City Hall’s balance sheets could be written off

May 27, 2009 News

The recent inquiry into the financial affairs of City Hall concurs with the findings of the Auditor General Report according to Commissioner of Inquiry, Keith Burrowes.
Burrowes’s disclosure came on Monday when he addressed the statutory meeting of the Mayor and City Council on Monday.
He revealed, too, that a modified report of the inquiry is likely to be officially handed over to Minister of Local Government and Regional Development, Kellawan Lall and unveiled for public consumption before the end of this week.
According to Burrowes, the official undertaking is expected to be done at a press conference and represents the wish of the Minister who will make the final decision on the recommendations contained in the three-volume report.
While not venturing into the specifics of the report, Burrowes said that the report will detail recommendations that will cover a number of departments and is aimed at strengthening the management of the council.
But according to him in recognition of the state of the financial system of the municipality he is recommending that a proposal be made to have the current balance be written off.
“I think we are all aware of the situation in terms of the financial statements. I have had several meetings with the Auditor General and at the last meeting, after some debate, a decision was taken that the council should, soon after handing over the report, prepare a proposal to write off those amounts coming forward on your balance sheet that nobody could verify,” Burrowes related.
The state of the accounts at the municipality is “unbelievably poor” thus a write off will help to bring clarity to the process, he said.
“I took the 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006 accounts and I did some analysis and I could tell you that the changes are the same from one year to another and with no real explanation I cannot figure out, unless I am a magician, how those figures change from one year to another.”
Burrowes said that the proposal that will be prepared must take into consideration the history of assets and liabilities as well as the income statements and the valuation of assets, factors that must be addressed before the final resolution of a write-off is implemented.
However, once the proposal is tabled and approved before the council, Burrowes noted that the financial slate of the city entity will be wiped clean allowing for a fresh start as of January next year.
City Mayor, Hamilton Green, questioned whether the state would allow the writing of the municipal’s balance sheets based on the difficult circumstances that have been exposed by the findings.
Burrowes cautioned, though, that the write-off may not necessarily mean that all assets and liabilities will be written off since it is only intended to target those amounts that are unverifiable.

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City Hall’s balance sheets could be written off

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