EPA misrepresents money spent, retains balance – AG finds

Nov 07, 2017 News

The Office of the Auditor General has found the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to be in violation of Section 43 of the Fiscal Management and Accountability (FMA) Act, which requires unexpended balances to be refunded to the Consolidated Fund at the end of each fiscal year.
Auditor General, Deodat Sharma highlighted the violation in his audit report for the fiscal year ended 2016. He noted that EPA essentially misrepresented the amount of money it spent on a particular project. While that agency’s appropriation account stated that it expended $47M on the project, it was only $13M that was actually spent, and instead of returning the money to the Consolidated Fund, EPA kept it.
The Auditor General’s report stated, “The sum of $47M was released to Environmental Protection Agency for: provision for design and construction of building; and purchase of global positioning systems, noise meter, radiation monitoring system, cameras, environmental monitor, chairs, water dispenser, soil analyzer, air conditioning units and photocopier.”
The report continued, “According to the Appropriation Account, the full amount of $47M was expended. However, the records of the Agency revealed that amounts totalling $13.725M were expended.
The difference of $33.275M was retained by the Agency and not refunded to the Consolidated Fund as required. This resulted in the Appropriation Account being overstated by this amount.”
The EPA falls under the Ministry of Natural Resources. That Ministry responded to the AG saying that the head of budget agency indicated that it retained and rolled over $33.275M, since approval was granted by the Finance Secretary for a multi-year contract in respect of payments to be made in 2017 for the construction and supervision of works of a new multi-floor building in Environmental Protection Agency Compound.
Despite the explanation offered, the Auditor General has recommended that the EPA institute measures to ensure full compliance with Section 43 of the FMA Act, which requires unexpended balances to be refunded to the Consolidated Fund at the end of each fiscal year.