Auditor General points to gross misuse of project account held by MOE

Nov 10, 2017 News

The Ministry of Education (MOE) continued to operate a special project bank account into which funds from various sources such as Guyana Lotteries Commission, DIGICEL and refunds from Permanent Secretary were placed.
However, the way in which this account has been used has been flagged by the Auditor General, Deodat Sharma, in his most recent report.
Sharma said that the bank balance on this account as at 31 December 2015 was $29.952M while the cash book balance was $11.023M. Similarly, the bank balance as at 31 December 2016 was $46.621M and the bank balance as per the cash book was $44.825M.
During 2016, amounts totalling $177.080M were received and deposited into this account. He said that included in this amount, were sums totalling $28.474M which was related to revenue received for the rental of the National Stadium and which the Ministry deposited into the Consolidated Fund.
However, it was observed that the ministry “inappropriately” met unrelated expenditure totalling $173.703M from this account.
Sharma noted that an analysis of the expenditure revealed that a significant portion was related to the normal activities of the ministry. The Auditor General noted that expenditure should have been met from budgetary allocations and approved by the National Assembly.
In addition, the ministry breached Section 8 of the Procurement Act as there was no evidence that tender board procedures were adhered to in the procurement process. Further, according to the Auditor General, payment vouchers and relevant supporting documents were not presented for audit examination.
Sharma said that $98.616M was collected as revenue from the Guyana Lottery Commission for 2016. As at the end of last year, $44.256M was expended on the purchase of two pianos, airfare and out of pocket allowance for overseas visits. “However, the unspent balance of $54.360M was not refunded to the Consolidated Fund.”
Further, it was noted that an examination of the payment voucher revealed that one upright piano and one concert grand piano to the value of US$204,690 equivalent to $42.162M was purchased based on the NPTAB approval dated 17 November 2015.
However, there was no evidence that an amendment to the approval granted was sought to facilitate the procurement of the pianos to be made in 2016.
Also, Sharma said that four payments totalling $1.595M were made to meet expenditure of the ministry for national celebrations. The payment vouchers were not presented for audit examination. Additionally, Sharma said that two payments totalling $525,300M were expended on salaries and overtime for staff at National Stadium, National Cultural Centre, Sophia Training Centre and Kuru Kuru Training College. The payment vouchers were not presented for audit examination.
The Ministry indicated that the payment vouchers will be made available for examination. In relation to having relevant approvals for purchases, the ministry indicated that corrective action has been taken to avoid future occurrences.
The Audit Office recommended that the ministry takes immediate action to ensure that all unspent balances are refunded to the Consolidated Fund. The Audit Office said that the Ministry should also take all necessary measures to locate the missing payment vouchers while reviewing the system in place for storing and retrieving vouchers and to ensure vouchers are properly secured for audit and the retention period.

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