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Home Affairs Ministry sitting on $714M
– Auditor General uncovers huge sum not returned to Consolidated Fund
(Kaieteur News) – The latest Auditor General’s report, laid in Parliament, has revealed a major breach of financial law by the Ministry of Home Affairs, which failed to return a stunning $713.944 million to the Consolidated Fund at the end of the 2024 fiscal year.
According to the report, Section 43 of the Fiscal Management and Accountability (FMA) Act 2003 is explicit: all unspent public funds must be surrendered to the Consolidated Fund at year’s end. Yet, as of September 2025, auditors found 15 cheques—totalling nearly three-quarters of a billion dollars—still sitting in the Ministry’s Accounts Department. As a result, the Appropriation Accounts were overstated by the said amount, the report revealed.
In response to the revelations, the ministry acknowledged the finding and is awaiting the delivery of outstanding items before the payment is made.
The Audit Office recommended that the Head of the Budget Agency “institute measures to ensure full repayment to the Consolidated Fund of all amounts remaining unpaid at the end of each fiscal year in compliance with the FMA Act 2003.”
Additionally, there was an examination carried out on employment record and it was discovered that two officers were overpaid in their salaries in the net sum of $175,218 whilst the related deductions totalling $28,812 were also overpaid to the various deduction agencies. “Similarly, amounts totalling $2.435M remained outstanding as overpaid net salaries to employees with respect to 2019, 2020, 2022 and 2023. The related deductions totalling $350,693 paid over to the various deduction agencies were also not recovered,” the report further revealed.
In its response the ministry said that “the Head of the Budget Agency indicated that the Ministry has since written the Accountant General in an effort to have the sums recovered. In relation to previous years’ overpayment, efforts are ongoing to have the remaining sums recovered.” Meanwhile the Audit Office is recommending that the Head of Budget Agency continue its efforts to recover the overpayment.
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