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Feb 04, 2014 News
Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Culture Youth and Sports, Mr. Alfred King, found himself between the proverbial rock and a hard place yesterday when he was faced with questions by the members of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) over the overpayment of salaries to staff members.
This money is still to be recovered. The meeting was facilitated in the Chambers of the National Assembly. The debate which lasted for about 20 minutes on this particular issue brought to the fore that the overpayments were due to a breakdown in communication between the departments of the Ministry.
The sum of $111,377 was recovered during the year 2012 and the sum of $20,000 was recovered in 2013, bringing the balance to $710,403. One officer however has committed to repaying $47,000 which brings the balance to $663, 194, which to date is still outstanding.
According to the reports, 10 staff members were overpaid.
King explained that rigid systems have since been put in place to avoid a recurrence; however, there was no indication on his part that the outstanding balance could be recovered.
He explained to the Committee that some persons could not be located “An average of ten persons are involved in the issue and one person has paid thus far. There are nine persons with outstanding payments and four out of the nine cannot be located and based on the addresses given they are in Guyana …we are trying to locate them and the ones we contacted are not willing to pay only one person came and paid a small amount and did not pay anything else.”
King explained to members of the Committee that the overpayments occurred for a number of reasons and attempts were made to contact the persons involved, using the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM).
He claimed that five of these persons could not be located since they were not found at the addresses provided.
However, one member of the Committee seemed unsatisfied with this response, noting that not being able to locate someone who is employed with the public system is no excuse.
He said that when someone is employed with the system they are given an IRD number which is used to identify every taxpayer. He insisted, “We are supposed to know where these people are.”
Another member of the Committee, Bibi Shadick then posed the critical question, “What do we do with these people when we find them?”
King responded that while the individuals in question cannot be prosecuted over the matter since it is not an offence, he will try his best to get them to repay the money.
Gail Teixeira then stated that considering the circumstances surrounding the overpayments is the fault of the Ministry and as such he (King) really does not have an excuse.
She added that the matter requires better coordination between the finance department and personnel of other sections of the Ministry. “It is about tightening your communication and making changes to the way cherubs are being cut.”
Chairman of the Committee, Carl Greenside concluded the meeting by explaining that there are two dimensions to be considered. “More careful attention should be paid by members of the Ministry to ensure payments are not made when they are not supposed to. And secondly, it is a systematic problem and I hope it does not recur. I would urge that you go through the system to bring whatever moral pressure you can on these people and see what sort of solution can be had.”
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