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Nov 05, 2014 News
– ill-preparedness by own members also highlighted
By Kiana Wilburg
The Ministry of Amerindian Affairs and the Supreme Court of Judicature paid for their lack of preparedness when
their representatives faced vigilant members of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Monday. They were highly critical of the many current and still unresolved financial irregularities that stemmed from the entities’ poor accounting systems.
The lack of contributions or meaningful ones at that, from some PAC members, was also a matter of contention, and while the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) did well when it faced the Committee, particularly in clearing up a number of outstanding matters, this is the least PAC Chairman, Carl Greenidge could say for the Amerindian Affairs Ministry and Supreme Court.
With regard to the Ministry, Greenidge surmised that its general reporting was “so poor” that it was instructed to return to the drawing board, do proper investigative work and upon its next session with the committee, provide “proper answers in relation to certain discrepancies.’”
Greenidge mentioned that he was particularly perturbed that ministries continue to have a problem with tackling overpayment to contractors. He cited that the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs for example, overpaid $7.869M to a contractor. This was a project that was piloted by the said ministry, but the money was never recovered.
The Auditor General’s report cited that the contract was awarded in the sum of $14M, and the full amount was paid to the contractor. However, based on physical verification on site, it was revealed that over $7M was overpaid.
The Ministry said, however, that the contractor subsequently lost the contract and was notified that he would have to repay the overpaid amount by September 30. The contractor is yet to acknowledge the notice.
PAC Member Bibi Shadick had insisted that staff members be held accountable for such overpayments.
Greenidge informed that the Ministry was also heavily criticized for its failure to properly address unresolved matters from over the years, which include poor record-keeping.
Before delving into the misgivings of the Supreme Court of Judicature, Greenidge mentioned that the Auditor General (AG), Deodat Sharma, was also called into question. He said that Sharma is yet to explain the status of the World Cup 2010 committee and what happened with the funds from the event, except to say that it is now under the control of National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL).
“This remains a suspicious problem and we intend to get to the bottom of it,” Greenidge added.
As for the Supreme Court, the PAC Chairman explained that while the AG did not find any problem with the High Court, but there were major irregularities in the Magistrates’ Courts.
“The percentage of the criminal and civil case dockets in the Georgetown, West Demerara and East Demerara Magisterial Districts that are missing is too disturbing, and no proper reason could be given to justify this. We eventually decided in the end to let them go back and fix this problem. Based on what was explained, there seems to be no proper system in place to document the movement of case dockets. They have to get it right,” the PAC Chairman lamented.
The AG’s 2012 report points out that there are 2,800 case dockets that could not be found during the period under review.
Greenidge noted that another key problem for the Judicature is, cost overruns for contractors.
He said, “For example, there was one matter where one contractor would be awarded a contract to build four magistrates’ courts and he would be paid the money in full. Then when the work is not completed and more money is paid without certain penalty clauses being in place in the contract. When you look at the improper arrangements for the contracts and the loss of documents germane to the work of the Judicature, it is astonishing when you consider it all.”
The Supreme Court of Judicature is still to account for over $14 million that was discovered outstanding more than a decade ago. The irregularities were uncovered by the Auditor General at various Magisterial Districts during 1995 to 2001 and estimated losses amounting to $14.476M remained outstanding.
Rashid Mohamed, acting Registrar of the Supreme Court, reported to the PAC that there was one other recent instance of missing monies, but the perpetrator was caught, charged and convicted.
The acting Registrar was questioned about the subsequent systems that were put in place since the $14M incident and what led to another breach. Mohamed told the PAC that the only mechanism that was implemented was the rotation of staff, along with stringent supervision. But this, in light of the evidence he provided, was deemed inadequate.
The PAC Chairman then told him to get the systems reassessed, for it sends a bad message that the court system has persons internally who are committing the offences for which it prosecutes individuals.
Additionally, it was observed that the majority of the questions for Monday’s PAC proceedings came from those members who are of the government.
Greenidge made known that PAC member Shadick was most critical and vocal about the ministries. He noted too that another member, Manzoor Nadir, was also critical of the termination process of contracts and jobs and made reference to the Labour Laws, which Mohamed seemed not to be familiar with.
As for the three Opposition members who were present, Keith Scott and Ernest Elliot of A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), and Trevor Williams of the Alliance For Change (AFC), there was little questioning from this side.
Williams was noted as making a few comments among some questions, but Scott and Elliot made no contributions to the proceedings.
Questioned on this, the PAC Chairman said it may point to the lack of preparation and lack of familiarity with the matters being discussed. He said that this shouldn’t be, as both have been parliamentarians for quite some time.
“At the end of the day, either side or members rather, are supposed to have some form of contribution to make, and it’s the opposition that is supposed to be holding the government to account or under the microscope and not government on itself,” Greenidge asserted.
Scott was contacted yesterday by this publication and asked for a reason why he did not make any contribution to the proceedings on Monday. He responded, “Shadick did an excellent job…she said all the right things and so I felt there was no need for me to intervene…”
House Speaker, Raphael Trotman had spoken about the need for a budgetary office to assist members of the PAC in preparing effective questions for ministries and other entities it would have to examine.
Trotman had stated that based on what he has noticed, there is need to strengthen the functions of the PAC with the implementation of a Budget Control Office.
“This is necessary so that Members of Parliament (MPs) are better advised on accounting expertise and how to ask the right questions, and not perhaps ask the same questions over and over. I know that some of you may not want to admit to that, but I think that the MPs need to have the services of a fully functioning Budget Control Office, so that when they come to the meetings they know what to look for, what to ask and how to ask…”
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