Loose ends costing court system significantly – AG Report

Nov 28, 2012 News

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By Zena Henry
Various discrepancies, according to the Auditor General Report 2011, are costing the court system millions of dollars in losses.  In relation to the current expenditure of the Supreme Court, it was noted that to date at least nine matters which were being investigated by the police or are pending in the Court for apparent fraudulent acts against the State, remain outstanding. The losses for these matters are estimated at $16.246M.
The Audit Office noted that the Supreme Court is pursuing the matters with the relevant authorities. The Auditor General (AG) said a letter dated May 27, 2011 was sent to the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs requesting a status report, but to date, the Public Accounts Committee has not received a reply.
The AG thus recommended that the Department takes vigorous follow-up action with the relevant authorities to bring the matters to a close.
Some of these irregularity cases were dismissed by the Court, but the losses of $6.263M were not written-off.  The report stated that a request to write off the loss was made, but it is unclear whether follow-up action was taken. In 1999, in the West Demerara District, it was reported that records were adjusted to reflect different amounts. It totaled $555,000. In the same year, the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court reported cases of tampering of receipts to show lesser amounts collected; those losses totaled $242,000. It was further revealed that West Demerara in 2000 reported that amounts paid out were converted to personal use by an officer; that totaled $5.466M.
Again the Supreme Court said that it was pursuing the matter with the authorities. They noted that a letter was sent to the Finance Ministry and copied to the Accountant General requesting that the debt be written-off. The Audit Office again recommended speedy follow-up action to bring closure to the issues.
In another matter, the 2011 report stated that at least seven instances of payment directives for resignations, retirements and dismissals were forwarded late to the Central Accounting Unit. This resulted in overpaid salaries of $148,886 which included deductions of $14,341. The report also noted that in previous years, there have been the same occurrences resulting in an outstanding sum of $834,715 still to be recovered from 38 persons.
The Court’s Personnel Department said that actions are continuing to recover the monies. They said their Personnel Department and other Heads of Department are working closely to monitor staff changes, while letters have been sent to various officers for the return of the money.
The Audit Office also recommended that the Personnel Department follow-up with employees and respective agencies to recover the money, and encouraged that systems be put in place to ensure that overpayment occurrences are minimized.
The AG Report noted that 10 of 18 officers failed to present proof of insurance for vehicles used in the execution of their duties. This they said was a partial submission made by the officers who were entitled to travelling allowances; and the insurance proof was a condition precedent to the payment of the allowances.   In 2010, 37 officers had also failed to present the requirement.
The department said that since the discrepancies, they have taken steps such as sending letters to the officers to present the requirement, or their allowances (commuted and mileage) will be withheld. The department has been advised by the Audit office to circularize instructions in relation to travelling allowances.
The AG further reported that the filing of affiliation, criminal and civil case dockets at Georgetown, West Demerara and East Demerara Magisterial Districts continue to be disorganized, with a number of documents being misplaced or filed at wrong locations. Added to that, the register of the case documents did not contain information about the file’s movement.
The department responded that it has instituted a Transfer and Movement Register to monitor all case documents. While they stated that at the time of audit examination the files may have been with the Magistrates for hearing, it was noted that they will be presented for audit examination upon the determination of the matters.
The Audit Office instructed that corrective measures be put in place to account for the documents while efforts should be made to locate those that are missing.
A contractor was also overpaid $1.445M for partially completed work on the Leonora Magistrate’s Court. The contractor, whose contract was terminated in June 14, 2011, was paid $15.221M while the work that was done was valued at $13.776M.
The Audit Office said that the Attorney General will be approached in relation to legal proceedings against the contractor. It was thus recommended that efforts be made to recover the overpaid amounts and put in place, control measures over the supervision and certification of works.

 

 

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