–Auditor-General’s report discloses
–says funds should have been returned to the Consolidated Fund

THE Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Monday heard that in 2019, during the tenure of the APNU+AFC government, some 1,194 cheques worth a staggering $791.1 million were discovered in a safe in Region One.
While the sum at reference should have rightfully been returned to the Consolidated Fund, the safe in which it was found belonged to the Barima-Waini region’s sub-treasury.
The discovery was made by the PAC during its examination of the Auditor-General’s 2019 Report for Region One, where questions were raised about a number of cheques, and inconsistencies and possible non-compliance with Guyana’s Fiscal Management and Accountability Act (FMAA).

According to the report, Section 34 of the FMAA requires that at the end of each fiscal year, unexpended public funds issued out of the Consolidated Fund be returned to same.
“Audit checks revealed that 1,216 cheques totalling $802.813 million were printed on behalf of the Regional Administration for December 31, 2019. An inspection of the Sub-treasury’s safe on January 22, 2020 revealed that there were 1,194 cheques on hand totalling $791.109 million. These cheques should have been refunded to the Consolidated Fund,” the Audit report revealed.

Further to this, it indicated that no evidence of payment vouchers and related documents were seen in relation to 333 cheques which totalled $133.989 million.
The report went on to add that it could not be determined whether the regional administration complied with the FMAA.

As this revelation raised eyebrows at the PAC meeting, Minister of Public Works and government member of the committee, Bishop Juan Edghill enquired as to why there were no vouchers, documentation or background paperwork in relation to this.
However, the current Regional Executive Officer (REO), who was only appointed to that post earlier this year, said that he is unaware of what exactly transpired there, but assured the PAC that there is currently an improved system.
He said, “I can’t say what exactly transpired, but I can say with an improved system that no cheques will be printed or processed without a voucher, and the necessary supporting documentation meaning it’s the procurement of goods and the necessary invoices, quotations.”

Edghill said: “This is not three cheques, this is 333 cheques without any background paperwork that led to the writing of the cheques, the auditors may be correct to say the FMAA was not followed there was a breach, but this is a system failure because if you have 333 cheques as of December 2019 that is cut, these cheques are cut in people’s names because you can’t have a cheque if you don’t have an identified payee.”
As such, he enquired what became of the cheques and if they had been paid to people or returned to the treasury.

The REO indicated that based on documents, 11 cheques were refunded to the Consolidated Fund totalling around $4 million. When asked what happened to the others, he said that he was advised these transactions were in their finality and those payments went through.
“I don’t know what model has been used, but I’m in contact with the sub-treasury officer and they indicated that some persons were paid for services rendered and works completed,” Sewchand said.