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Health Ministry fails to prove it spent over $1B on drugs and medical supplies
The Audit Office of Guyana has been unable to verify that the Ministry of Health has spent over $1B on drugs and medical supplies. Also, the Audit Office has flagged the ministry’s misspending of hundreds of millions of dollars.
The issues were highlighted in the Audit Report of 2016.
The report stated that auditors, who examined payment vouchers for $1.434B that were expended by the ministry, found that eight contracts were awarded by both NPTAB and MTB valued at $1.434B, and cheques were prepared and processed. Auditors noted that a schedule of the drugs procured for the total contract sums were attached to the vouchers. However, there was no breakdown to show the value and quantity of drugs and medical supplies procured for each Region.
“As a result, the accuracy and validity of the amounts expended on behalf of the Regions could not be determined.”
Further, auditors found that included in the sum of $1.838B is the sum of $320.525M which represents warrants received by the Ministry for Region Six.
According to the Integrated Financial Management and Accounting System (IFMAS), the full sum was expended by the Ministry on behalf of the Region for the period under review.
However, checks by auditors revealed that the sum of $114.277M was expended on the purchase of drugs and medical supplies while $206.248M was expended on the ministry’s payroll for October 2016. “The moneys were not utilized for the purpose intended.”
Responding to the findings of the Audit Office, the Ministry of Health said that a breakdown of the value and quantity of the drugs and medical supplies procured would be done in future; and it is engaging the Ministry of Finance to have the issue with the amount expended on the payroll resolved.
The Audit Office recommended that the Ministry ensures that “the amounts received via warrants are expended for the purposes intended and any unspent amounts are returned to the relevant Budget Agencies/Regions with the necessary financial returns; and that it is in receipt of all financial returns in respect of warrants issued.
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