NIRA (RGD) – Failure to submit Four Outstanding Appropriation Accounts to account for $2.39 Billion in Budgetary Allocations

Auditor General's Findings

The 2023/2024 Auditor General’s Annual Report (subsections 3.2.30–3.2.31) found that, contrary to Section 24I(1) of the FAA Act , which requires accounting officers to prepare and submit to the Minister and the Auditor General the Appropriation Account, setting out the expenditure for the year against the approved budgetary allocation, four months after the fiscal year,the Registrar General’s Department (RGD) did not submit four Appropriation Accounts representing an accumulated budgetary allocation of approximately $2.39 billion for the financial years 2014/2015 and 2021/2022 to 2023/2024.

Management subsequently advised (3.2.31) that it was working to submit three outstanding Appropriation Accounts between January and March 31, 2025, and committed to addressing internal weaknesses to comply with Government guidelines regarding the timely submission of accounts.

Permanent Secretary (current): Rocky Meade

Breach Category: Resource Management

Permanent Secretary (at breach): Rocky Meade

Breach Type: Untimely Preparation of Appropriation Accounts

Status: Partial Compliance

Last Assessed: June 17, 2026

Year Reported: 2024

Year Resolved:

JAMP Update

National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA) (formerly the RGD) responded to JAMP on May 7, 2026, advising that:

The 2014/2015 Appropriation Account was submitted to the Auditor General’s Department (letter dated March 2, 2026) and is awaiting examination and certification;
The 2020/2021 account, originally submitted February 15, 2024 and returned for adjustment, was revised and resubmitted on July 10, 2025 and is awaiting examination and certification;
The 2021/2022 account is approximately 50% complete and, per Section 8.17.6 of the FAA Instructions, will be submitted to the Agency’s Internal Audit Department for verification on or before June 30, 2026, then forwarded to the AuGD.
The 2022/23 and 2023/2024 accounts are scheduled to be completed during the 2026/2027 financial year.

NIRA noted that the RGD transitioned to NIRA effective April 2, 2025, and that external resources have been engaged to assist in clearing the legacy backlog. For more detail, see ATI responses below.