MLSS – $19.68 Billion of spend not certified, 2 years of accounts outstanding

Auditor General's Findings

The Auditor General’s 2018/19 Annual Report disclosed the following:

1. The Ministry of Labour and Social Security did not meet the Legislative requirement in the preparation of their Appropriation Accounts, as up to the time of reporting, accounts for the FYs 2017/2018 and 2018/19 with a budgetary allocation of approximately $19.68 billion were not submitted.
2. MLSS took up to four years to submit accounts for the Recurrent Head financial years 2008/09, 2009/10, 2014/15 and 2015/16 and the Capital B Head financial years 2013/14 to 2016/17.

The MLSS advised that the delays were due to technical issues experienced with the Government Financial Management System that was implemented in February 2019 as well as staff shortages. The Ministry also indicated that recruitment has started and discussions are being held with the MOFPS to resolve the technical issues.

Our audit of the eight mentioned Appropriation Accounts disclosed that MLSS’s review process failed to identify breaches and other material errors in the statements submitted for certification. Consequently, we were unable to certify these statements as they contained material
errors.