The former People’s Progressive Party Civic administration is being accused of overpaying several millions of dollars in various contracts in 2013. The former government has been slapped with criticism for its tardiness in attempting to recover those monies.
According to the Auditor General Report for the fiscal year 2013, the then PPP government made overpayments amounting to $22.1 million for contracts administered by Ministries, Departments and Regions.
Auditor General Deodat Sharma in his Executive Summary of the 300 page document explained that there was an additional overpayment for works administered in previous periods, which amounted to $187.1 million.
In reporting on his findings, the Auditor General noted that the continued trend of failing to recover the money, coupled with no evidence to suggest that disciplinary action of any kind was meted out to those responsible, was troubling.
As a consequence, the AG believes the former PPP administration’s inaction to remedy the situation was clear. He detailed that some $12M was overpaid to the then Ministry of Home affairs while $4M was overpaid to the Ministry of Tourism.
There was also overpayment of salaries at some Ministries and in four regions, totaling $7.2Million. The AG also detailed that the country’s Consolidated Fund was in overdraft during the reporting period.
He said on December 31, 2013 the country’s bank account reflected an overdraft balance of $2 billion while the cash book reflected an overdraft balance of $21.4 billion.
Auditor General Sharma spoke of the government’s failure to transfer monies from eight static accounts, totaling $1.7 billion to the Fund.
He also questioned at the time why some $4M form the sale of Guyana Stores remained outstanding when it should have been paid since September 2002.
This, Sharma said, points to the then PPP government’s refusal to collect substantial amounts that were long outstanding to the government.
He detailed too that the sum of US$900 was still outstanding following the privatization of the National Paints Company in July 1991.
The Auditor General also criticized the PPP government for its continued cash based operations and failure to adopt or implement the International Public Sector Accounting Standards.
Shama said he was concerned with the high levels of non implementation of his recommendations to the government to improve systems and practices.
322 recommendations were made in 2012 of which 101 were fully implemented at the time.
He wants the government to look at his recommendations carefully and ensure its implementation.
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