… says M&CC only under scrutiny on spending of 0M
The Communities Ministry is denying conducting an audit into City Hall, insisting that it is only keeping the Georgetown Mayor and City Council (M&CC) in check with its spending of two subventions it received from Government.
Following discrepancies highlighted in the Auditor General’s Report 2015, the Ministry launched a review of the M&CC’s spending of its $300 million Government subvention and City Mayor Patricia Chase-Green is upset with this development.
Ronald Bulkan
Media reported that the Mayor, during the recent statutory meeting, labelled the exercise as an “audit” which was “unprofessional and disrespectful.”
“The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Communities would’ve sent in their internal auditors to examine the spending of the same $300 million. I don’t know what particularly they are looking for,” she is quoted as venting.
She was also annoyed that Auditor General Deodat Sharma published the document before giving City Hall an opportunity to respond to the findings on the questionable spending of the $300 million grant it received from the Communities Ministry under a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the ‘Georgetown Restoration Programme’.
“I welcome any audit done by the AG or any other person but I do not understand the manner in which they are operating. While we will tolerate it, all this clearly shows no respect to this Council. This is very disrespectful, without completely finishing your audit you present a report and you did not wait for a response from us,” she posited.
No audit
But the Communities Ministry in response to the Mayor’s rage denied conducting an audit into the spending of the subvention.
According to the statement it released on Thursday, the Ministry is merely collecting data in preparation of a response to audit queries stemming from the 2015 Auditor General’s Report.
“It is required of the Ministry of Communities to ensure that any subvention or grant disbursed to local democratic organs is spent in accordance with the programme,” the Ministry pointed out.
The Ministry explained that on October 5, following the submission of the AG Report, a letter was sent to the Town Clerk Royston King and copied to the Mayor, informing them of a decision to dispatch its internal auditor to have the issues resolved.
The Ministry outlined that during a meeting on October 14, it was made clear to the Town Clerk, the Internal Auditor of the M&CC and the City Treasurer that no audit was being conducted but rather, the Ministry was carrying out its standard duty to ensure the grant was being spent in accordance with the MoU.
The Ministry added that there is no basis on which to launch an investigation, at least at this stage.
Furthermore, the Ministry said the ongoing exercise is seeking to also determine whether the municipality is spending its other grant of $100 million on the “Emergency Solid Waste Management of Haags Bosch Sanitary Landfill” in accordance with that MoU.
Both grants were given last year and each was based on a separately signed MoU between the Permanent Secretary, the Ministry and the M&CC Town Clerk.
The MoUs outline stipulated requirements attached to the grants in accordance with the Laws of Guyana, Chapter 28:01 (Municipal and District Councils) which was set out to satisfy financial accountability and transparency.
In its statement, the Ministry emphasised its “absolute regard” for the authority and autonomy of local organs and expressed that it would never impinge or circumvent the council’s work.
Discrepancies
The Auditor General, in his audit of the City Hall, found no basis of the award of several contracts for the weeding of parapets, desilting of drains and cutting down trees in various areas around Georgetown since supporting documents were unavailable. As a result, it could not be determined whether proper transparency and accountability were exercised in the awarding of the contracts. Additionally, there was no evidence of receipt or payee acknowledgement for a payment of $750,000 to a contractor. The AG Report also highlighted that several payment vouchers were examined – of which 167 had no evidence of vouchers being certified by the accountant of any other authorised officer; 140 vouchers totalling $143.683 million were not approved by the treasurer and 58 totalling $48.404 million had not been approved by the Finance Committee. (Devina Samaroo)
