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NDIA sharing account with Agriculture Ministry is against the law
– Ministry officials liable to jail time/fine under the Audit Act—APNU Jaipaul Sharma
Even though the law – Act 10 of 2004- provides for the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) to be termed “a separate legal entity,” the Ministry of Agriculture continues to handle monies appropriated to the entity by Parliament.
This, according to the Auditor General (AG) report of the year 2011, has resulted in a “failure to have related financial statements for the years 2005 to 2011 prepared and submitted for audit.”
APNU Jaipaul Sharma
The matter was raised in the last parliamentary sitting by A Partnership for National Unity (APNU)’s Member of Parliament Jaipaul Sharma.
Minister of Agriculture, Dr Leslie Ramsammy, told the National Assembly that the issue is being looked at by the Cabinet.
However, when contacted by this newspaper yesterday, Sharma asserted, “Cabinet cannot look into the matter of NDIA sharing an account with the Ministry simply because it is a breach of the law; therefore it is not a Cabinet matter. It is either they come to Parliament and amend the law or they comply with the law.”
The concern was noted in the AG’s report under the heading “prior year matters which have not been resolved”; this means that the issue has been ongoing and has been before pointed out by the Auditor General. However, as to how long ago the Ministry was first advised to separate the account could not have been verified as efforts to contact the AG proved futile.
The AG report stated, “The Ministry continued to expend amounts voted as subvention and capital provision for the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA). For the year under review, amounts totaling $4.037B were expended on these provisions with $2.809B being used from the current provision. Similarly, for the provisions reporting period, amounts totalling $2.982B were expended, with an amount of $1.957B being used from the current provision.”
Further, it was noted that “NDIA is a separate entity created by Act 10 of 2004 and is required to maintain its own accounting records and is subject to separate reporting and audit. It therefore follows that it should have been in receipt of the subventions appropriated by parliament. This situation resulted in a failure to have related financial statements for the year 2005 to 2011 prepared and submitted for audit.”
Sharma pointed out that the AG has the power to hold the necessary Ministry officials accountable and those can, under the Audit Act, become subjected to jail time or a fine.
The AG also noted in his report that “a similar situation existed in previous years”, where the Ministry expended the NDIA allocations.
Sharma quoting the Audit Act, said that “If the Auditor General has reason to believe that an offence was committed, he shall request the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and the Commissioner of Police to take appropriate action and prosecute the offender if necessary.”
Minister of Agriculture, Dr Leslie Ramsammy
The Parliamentarian also noted, again from the Audit Act, that “A person who is convicted of an offence under section 38 is liable, on summary conviction, to a fine not to exceed $200,000 and to imprisonment for a term not to exceed five years; an entity or body of persons which is convicted of such an offence is liable, on summary conviction, to fine not to exceed $1 million.”
Sharma said that NDIA, “having its own accounting records and being subjected to separate reporting audit, is a lawful requirement and the Ministry’s failure to comply is an offence.”
“The Auditor General should say why is he not using his powers and enforcing penalties,” said Sharma.
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