MICAF - $265.4M Overspent for 2018/19 Budget without evidence of approval

Auditor General's Findings

According to the Auditor General Department’s 2018-2019 Annual Report, MICAF exceeded its approved expenditure on three components of its Capital Budget by $73.6 million. However, despite requests, no evidence of approval for the reallocation of funds to facilitate these excesses was presented.

The Auditor General also identified 103 instances where the Ministry exceeded its approved budget by a total of $191.8 million on various Objects within its Recurrent Account. This included seven instances of excess relating to Object 21 – Compensation of Employees totalling $4.8 million. However, the AuGD was unable to reconcile the Virements for the Recurrent Account because the Virement schedule presented was incomplete. The modified schedule provided by the Ministry subsequent to the audit still did not facilitate reconciliation.

Permanent Secretary (current): Dermon Spence

Breach Category: Resource Management

Permanent Secretary (at breach):

Breach Type:

Status: Full Compliance

Last Assessed: May 7, 2020

Year Reported: 2019

Year Resolved: 2019

Recommendation

1. Management should ensure that urgent steps are taken to recover the overpayments and strengthen its controls over the preparation and payment of salaries and the payment of rental expense to prevent a recurrence.

2. Management should promptly investigate and resolve all deposit accounts with debit balances.

3. MICAF should strengthen its controls to ensure that budgeted funds are used only for their intended purposes. Management should ensure that steps are taken to improve the commitment control process in order to prevent unauthorised reallocation of funds.

JAMP Update

The Ministry advised that the over expenditure was not deliberate. At the time that the transaction took place the FINMAN system had indicated that the funds were available and on that basis they committed the funds. It was subsequent to spending that they realized the flaws in the FINMAN system.

The Ministry committed to ensuring that the requisite approval for reallocation is in place prior to expenditure of funds and has ensured that where required, the approval of the Ministry of Finance is sought especially for Capital projects.

A further review of the Recurrent virement schedules for reallocation of budgets effected was conducted and updated. Of the 103 instances where the Ministry exceeded its approved budget, 30 of the budget lines exceeded had prior Virement approval.

The Ministry acknowledged the shortcomings raised in the Auditor Generals’ report They advised that the problems with the FINMAN systems were raised with the Financial Systems Unit [FSU] during the year, but the matter was not resolved.

The current accounting system (GFMS) in operation has the requisite mechanisms in place to check for the availability of funds at the commitment stage and therefore reduces any incidents of a budget line being over expended. The Ministry is also ensuring that the requisite approval for reallocation of budget is sought and effected prior to the expenditure of funds.