E-Governance Unit flagged for fuel racket

Nov 10, 2017 News

The Audit Office of Guyana has found the E-Governance Unit of the Ministry of Public Telecommunications to be operating in a manner that is not consistent with best accounting practices and the laws of Guyana.
Specifically, the Audit Office highlighted several discrepancies with the way in which the unit accounted for millions of dollars’ worth of fuel.
According to the 2016 Auditor General’s report, $12.407M represented the total amount expended by the Ministry of Public Telecommunications on fuel and lubricants for the period under review.
The Auditor General, Deodat Sharma said that included in the $12.4M is the sum of $7.09M which was spent on the supply of fuel and lubricants to the E-Government Unit for the period.
“However, audit checks carried out on the fuel slips, charged bills and invoices revealed that: a) a fuel register was not maintained ; b) charge bills and invoices for the months of May and August were not presented for audit; and c) reconciliation with GUYOIL statements was not carried out for the period January- December 2016.”
The only explanation offered by the E-Governance Unit is that “the register is now being maintained and the reconciliation is in process.”
The Audit Office recommended that the Ministry of Telecommunication ensure that the register is maintained and amounts expended are reconciled with charge bills and invoices to properly account for amounts expended on fuel.
A similar situation was found within the Ministry of Education.
Sharma reported that circularised instructions requires that historical records and log books be kept for each vehicle owned and or operated by the ministry in order to record maintenance costs and other pertinent information.
However, “During the year under review, log books were not submitted for 36 serviceable vehicles. The log books presented were not properly written up and maintained. Fuel collected from the gas stations was not always recorded.”
In addition, the Audit Office found that the Ministry did not maintain a fuel consumption register for the period under review. “In the circumstances, it could not be ascertained whether all journeys undertaken over the period were for official use, and whether journeys were properly authorised or whether proper control was exercised over the vehicles.”
The Ministry of Education responded to the findings of the Audit Office only by committing to providing “the outstanding Log Books for examination and will endeavour to have all Log Books properly maintained.”

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