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Auditor General finds…Education officials preside over US$7.5M overpayment to contractors
The Ministry of Education is still to recover in excess of $1.5B which it overpaid to contractors during 2010 and 2011.
This is according to Auditor General, Deodat Sharma, who flagged this deficiency in his report on the Ministry’s activities last year.
According to Sharma, it is important to note that the personnel and/or Consultants nominated by the Ministry were integrally involved in the examination of the projects and the related findings discussed and agreed upon with the team headed by the Special Projects Officer of the Ministry.
Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand
“Nevertheless, there was a failure to recover the amounts overpaid.”
The overpayments of just over $1.5B related to three projects—- an Information Technology (IT) Laboratory each for the Charity and Aurora Secondary Schools and the New Wing which was attached to the Patentia Secondary School.
The Ministry reportedly overpaid the contractor for the Patentia Secondary School project, $885M over the two year period.
The contractor for the IT Laboratory at Charity Secondary School was overpaid $398M, while the contractor at the Aurora Secondary school was overpaid $245M.
The report found, too, that the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board last year awarded a contract for the construction of the Science Laboratory of the Central Corentyne Secondary School.
That contract was for $11M and works commenced on December 11, 2012.
Between that date and the end of the month an amount of $2.2M was disbursed from the proceeds of the contract.
The completion of the project was scheduled for March 5, 2013, but at the time of the audit visit on June 26, 2013, the works were not completed and appeared to be abandoned.
“In addition to the fact that liquidated damages had accrued on a daily basis at a rate of 0.1 per cent of the final contract price, but not exceeding 10 per cent of the final contract price, there were overpayments totalling $202,400, on measured works.”
The report found that the Ministry has been hoarding $200M in a Bank of Guyana Account.
According to Sharma’s report, in 2011, approval was given for the establishment of a Housing Revolving Fund.
He said that three cheques to the value of $200M were drawn on January 5, 2012 and deposited into a special bank account held at the Bank of Guyana.
“At the time of reporting, no disbursements were made from the Account.”
The Auditor General found too that with regards to the School Feeding Programme in Region Nine and in keeping with the Memorandum of Understanding for the consolidation of the School Snack Programme in that Region, two warrants amounting to $40M were issued.
This was to enable preparation and supply of schools snacks to 3,500 students across 43 Villages in that Region.
According to Sharma, financial returns were not provided to account for funds expended on behalf of the Ministry.
“In the circumstances, it could not be ascertained whether the amounts were expended for the purposes intended.”
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