MLSS - $2.7 Billion paid from Beneficiary Account, with no recon for six months in arrears

Auditor General's Findings

The Auditor General Department’s 2018/19 Annual Report spoke to their audit and findings on the Integrated Support to Jamaica’s Social Protection Strategy Project (ISISPS).

The Report revealed that the reconciliation of the Ministry’s Beneficiary bank account was six months in arrears.

The Beneficiary bank account is the sole account through which beneficiary payments are made and US$2.7 billion was paid out during the period that the reconciliations were not done.

PATH indicated that the outstanding reconciliations were not completed due to system related issues with the accounting software. PATH’s delay in reconciling the Beneficiary bank account compromised the internal control surrounding the Project’s cash resources, making it possible for errors and irregularities to remain undetected for protracted periods.

Permanent Secretary (current): Colette Roberts-Risden

Breach Category: Resource Management

Permanent Secretary (at breach): Colette Roberts-Risden

Breach Type: Untimely Preparation of Bank Reconciliation

Status: Progressing

Last Assessed: April 15, 2021

Year Reported: 2019

Year Resolved:

JAMP Update

JAMP requested on March 6, 2020 documentation to substantiate the current status of the reconciliation of the Beneficiary Accounts.

In November 2020, the MLSS responded to indicate that some of the delay was due to a system upgrade on the part of the bank, that led to challenges. Nevertheless, after a prolonged period, the Ministry was eventually provided with the corrected format of the bank statements by NCB on May 13, 2020. The Bank Reconciliation is currently at March 2019.

In addition, the stamp duties and bank charges of $1,387,312.92 have been journalized and will be reflected in July 2019 Bank reconciliation, based on letter from NCB advising that the entries have been corrected. The full response is accessible from the link below.

The AuGD’s Annual Report for 2019/2020 also provided an update on this matter. The findings can be accessed from the extract provided under the “Articles & Reports” tab.