Region 10 found in breach for cutting cheques in 2019 for unfinished work
Guyana
The Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Upper Berbice) administration breached Section 43 of the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act 2003 in 2019 since 228 cheques totalling $131.8 million were prepared for work that was still to be completed.
This information was revealed on Monday, February 12, during the 59th meeting of the Public Accounts Committee on the 2019 Auditor General’s (AG) report.
According to the AG’s report, the Regional Administration breached Section 43 of the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act 2003, which requires that at the end of each fiscal year, any unexpended balance of public monies issued out of the Consolidated Fund shall be returned.
This raised eyebrows of both government and opposition parliamentarians of the Committee, who proceeded to take the current regional official, Dwight John, and other representatives to task for allowing this to be swept under the carpet.
Minister of Public Works, Juan Edghill, who was visibly frustrated remarked “The cheques were cut for works not completed. The work didn’t do, how the cheques were cut if the work didn’t do.”
Former Regional Executive Officer (REO) Orrin Gordon, in his defence, told the PAC that actions had been taken in response to “situations confronting the administration at the time.”
Gordon explained, “There are some projects which are not going to be rolled over, and once it is not [rolled over], the (maximum) payment has to be made.”
The former REO reasoned that the regional administration opted to have these cheques prepared beforehand so the payments could be made once the work was completed. He also requested that the system of disbursing funds for projects not rolling over be reviewed so that such issues do not reoccur.
However, several committee members including Ganesh Mahipaul, Edghill, and Chairperson Jermaine Figueira, deemed this unacceptable, pointing out that this should not have occurred in the first place.
Mahipaul asserted, “Engineers, you must not subject yourself to instructions that are against the financial laws of this country… you cannot pay for work that is expected to be completed.”
The AG’s report cited that “Audit checks conducted on 20 January, 2020, revealed that there were 228 cheques on hand totalling $131.848 million.”
It added, “These cheques should have been refunded to the Consolidated Fund and the necessary adjustments made to the Appropriation Accounts. As a result, the Appropriation Accounts were overstated by the said amount.”
Further analysis of the cheques showed that the Ministry of Finance (MoF) cut 5,325 cheques totalling $4.425 billion for current and capital expenditure incurred by the Regional Administration.
However, 1,053 cheques totalling $775.817 million or approximately 18% of total expenditure were cut in December 2019 as shown in the table below.
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