AGD – Unidentified Bank Deposits of $2.3 Billion and Long-Outstanding Reconciling Items of $367.2 Million

Auditor General's Findings

The 2023/2024 Auditor General’s Annual Report (subsections 3.2.80–3.2.82) noted, from the audit of the Accountant General’s Department (AGD)’s 2020/2021 Appropriation Accounts, that while the accounts were prepared in keeping with the Financial Administration and Audit Act, Management was advised to implement proper systems of controls to ensure monthly bank reconciliation statements are consistently prepared. They were also advised to promptly clear long-outstanding reconciling items of $367.2 million identified on the reconciliation statements for five bank accounts.

Further, the AGD was not able to clear unverified credits totalling $2.3 billion identified in the reconciliation process; i.e. direct bank deposits for which there are no supporting documents to identify the depositor and the purpose of the deposit. The delayed reconciliation of bank accounts, sometimes by up to nine months, breached the Government of Jamaica guidelines.

The AGD advised that a Project Team was deployed; at the time of reporting (December 2024), the unidentified deposits balance had reduced to $161.2 million, and the longstanding reconciling amounts to $200.6 million.