TAJ – Untimely Bank Reconciliations Leaving $14.5 Billion Unreconciled and Salary Overpayments of $15.1M

Auditor General's Findings

The 2023/2024 Auditor General’s Annual Report (subsections 3.2.86–3.2.90) found from the audit of Tax Administration Jamaica’s (TAJ) 2022/2023 Appropriation Accounts that the controls TAJ implemented over the preparation of salaries were still not effective in preventing overpayments.

For FY2022/23, TAJ overpaid salaries totalling $15.077 million to 520 employees, in addition to the prior year’s overpayment balances of $717,000 to 74 employees; at the time of reporting TAJ had recovered most of the overpayments, leaving a balance of $17,555.

Contributing factors included tardiness by Human Resource Management in communicating salary adjustments to the payroll unit and payment of full motor vehicle upkeep to officers whose motor vehicle documents had expired.

The report also found that TAJ was not consistently reconciling bank accounts on a timely basis, taking between 75 and 219 days in some instances, contrary to the GoJ requirement for monthly reconciliation. Five bank reconciliation statements for March 2023 showed erroneous credits and debits totalling approximately $696.6 million and $52.5 million, respectively (a total of $749.1 million), and the reconciliation statements for three bank accounts had unreconciled balances totalling $14.5 billion.

The untimely reconciliation heightens the risk of late or non-detection of irregularities and of inaccurate tax status information; TAJ advised the delay was due to high staff turnover in the bank reconciliation unit.

Permanent Secretary (current): Darlene Morrison

Breach Category: Resource Management

Permanent Secretary (at breach): Darlene Morrison

Breach Type: Untimely Preparation of Bank Reconciliation

Status: Progressing

Last Assessed: June 17, 2026

Year Reported: 2024

Year Resolved:

Recommendation

The Auditor General’s Department (AuGD) advised that timely reconciliation is important for maintaining the integrity of financial records and ensuring the accuracy of tax information. Therefore, TAJ should establish robust financial controls that are aligned with a stringent monitoring system to mitigate the risks.

TAJ should also ensure that the reconciling items are promptly investigated and cleared.

Management subsequently advised that the Agency continues to implement strategies aimed at reducing the level of unidentified deposits and reducing the time taken to resolve erroneous debits and credits made by the banks. Some of the measures include the introduction of the DFTN (Direct Funds Transfer Number) process, which requires taxpayers to generate a DFTN prior to making a transfer to TAJ’s bank account; implementation of guidelines to address the issue of unidentified deposits; and integration of systems between TAJ, eGov, and the Accountant General’s Department.

Howevever, the AuGD added that up to the time of reporting, TAJ brought the reconciliation statements of the mentioned bank accounts up to date. However, in October and November 2024, the erroneous credits and debits increased to approximately $198.7 million and $909.3 million, respectively for the five bank reconciliation statements

JAMP Update

TAJ responded to JAMP on May 15, 2026, advising that motor-vehicle-upkeep overpayments were eliminated from December 2023 under the revised public sector compensation package, and that more stringent HR compliance deadlines now apply. Of the outstanding recoveries of $17,555.25 (two employees), one was recovered; $14,607.20 is still being pursued from an employee no longer with TAJ.

Erroneous debits reduced from $206.2M (Dec 31, 2023) to $192.94M (Apr 30, 2026), and erroneous credits from $618.7M to $412.8M. With CARTAC’s assistance, a consultant reviewed TAJ’s Revenue Accounting processes; 14 action items were approved, three implemented (discontinuation of personal/business cheques from non-government entities, the website EFT payment option, and of manually written cash sheets) and the remaining 11 were incorporated into the RAIS Core 26 upgrade project, which started in March 2026 with an expected duration of two years.

As at May 13, 2026, all five bank accounts (three BNS, two NCB) were reconciled up to March 2026. For more detail, see ATI response below.