The leakage of funds from government ministries and departments continues to be a major concern to the Auditor General in the wake of the discovery of over $96.9 million in overpayments related wages and entitlement to public sector workers over the past four years.
In the 2014 report of the Auditor General on the public accounts of T&T, which was laid in the Senate on Tuesday, the Auditor General’s Department, headed by Majeed Ali, said the overpayments or unauthorised payments were of major concern “since they not only represent a leakage of public funds but result in time and resources being spent on accounting, recovering, reporting and auditing.”
It also said “emotional factors” were involved for those affected in the recovery process. The overpayments/unauthorised payments related to salaries, pensions, allowances and wages. The report said since 1988 guidelines had been given by the Comptroller of Accounts “for reducing the incidents of overpayments and unauthorised payments.”
But not withstanding that up to last year (2014) there were 4,449 cases of overpayments, valued at more than $23 million, while just over $12 million of that amount was recovered, it added. It said for 2011 there were overpayments of more than $20.3 million in Government ministries and departments with only $8.4 million being recovered.
One year later, in 2012, the overpayment figure increased to $21.4 million but the recovered figure decreased to $8 million. In 2013 more than $31 million was overpaid with only $16.1 million recovered. In the four-year period, the report showed there were 20,773 cases of overpayments, with roughly 47 per cent, some $45.5 million, recovered over these years.
For fiscal 2014, the Education Ministry reported the largest overpayments. There were 72 cases, totalling $6.2 million, with only $1.4 of that amount recovered. There was also $5.2 million overpayment in the Ministry of National Security with $4.4 million recovered and a $5.7 million overpayment in the T&T Police Service, with almost all the overpayments recovered.
Regulations flouted
According to the report, the Auditor General has repeatedly expressed the need for “controls to be strengthened to minimise the incidents of overpayments.” It said the regulations provide for unauthorised payments or overpayments to be reported to the Comptroller of Accounts and the Auditor General but “reports were either not received or were inconsistent with the information disclosed in the appropriation account in a number of instances.”
Dealing with expenditure control in the Judiciary, the report said payments totalling $418,500 were made in September 2014 for the purchase of two vehicles but “at the time of the audit in January 2015, these vehicles were not seen to have been received.” The Auditor General said that contravenes the existing regulations “which requires certification of payment vouchers by the accounting officer that items purchased have been duly received and taken on charge.”
With respect to Parliament, the report said pension and leave records for 69 per cent of the existing staff at the Parliament “were noted to be updated within the last two years (but) there was no evidence that records in respect of retirees were submitted to the Comptroller of Accounts three months before the effective date of retirement as required to ensure prompt processing of separation benefits.”