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Delays in projects result in $8.4B shortfall in 2015 – Audit Report

Oct 14, 2016 News

The Auditor General’s 2015 report has revealed that the government has failed to spend over $8B of the money it budgeted for that year. Some of this money had to be returned to the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). The Audit Office describes this as an “unsatisfactory situation.”
Auditor General, Deodat Sharma reported, “Central Government failed to achieve their anticipated levels of capital expenditure activities during 2015.”
He said that the actual capital expenditure was approximately 79 percent of the approved allotment of $39B “resulting in a shortfall of over $8.4B. This shortfall was attributed primarily to delays in the implementation of key infrastructure projects.”
Sharma said, “This unsatisfactory situation resulted in the return of disbursements totaling US $5.3, equivalent to $1B, which was requested by the Inter-American Development Bank from the loan agreements Road Network Upgrade and Expansion Programme and Sustainable Operation of the Electricity Sector and Improved Quality Service.”
Nine Ministries failed to complete projects. These are the Ministries of Finance, Presidency, Agriculture, Business, Public Infrastructure, Education, Public Communications, Public Health and Public Security.
Ministry of Public Infrastructure has the highest shortfall. That Ministry failed to utilize $4.9B, followed by the Ministry of Communities which failed to spend $1.5B.
The Audit Office said that the unspent amounts under the Ministry of Public Infrastructure include portions of US$4.4M and US$900,000 that were disbursed on two loans, and had to be returned to the IDB based on the bank’s request due to the non–performance of the loans.
In keeping with the recommendation of the Audit Office, the Ministry of Finance has vowed that it will “continue” to advise all Heads of the Budget to commence early preparatory work on bid documents so as to facilitate tendering with respect to the execution of capital works during the first quarter of each year.
The Audit Office advised that with early preparation, issues will likewise be detected early and can be dealt with in a timely manner, so as to avoid delays and ensure amounts are expended as budgeted.

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