THE Caribbean Maritime University (CMU) is disputing some of the findings in the Auditor General’s Department (AGD) special audit report on the institution in which it pointed to weak financial control systems and raised the alarm about unsupported multimillion-dollar payments and procurement breaches.

According to CMU Treasurer Evon Gardner, simultaneous investigations were being undertaken at the time of the auditor general’s probe, and as a result some documents supporting payments of more than US$293,000 and $333 million from various CMU bank accounts were with the Financial Investigations Division (FID) during that period.

He insisted at yesterday’s virtual meeting of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that the auditors were made aware of the whereabouts of the outstanding documents, some copies of which are now back in the possession of the CMU.

“All payments that we have made are fully supported by documentation and appropriately signed off, and we had indicated to the auditor general’s team that some of those documents were with the FID. We have, for example, correspondence from the FID where they asked us for all the supporting documentation pertaining to a bank account, [and] in August of last year when we reached out to the FID…they sent us back copies of those documentation that they had taken from us. Unfortunately, this was after the Auditor General’s [Department] had done their field work, so they were not privy to some of those documentation,” Gardner said.

Auditor General Pamela Monroe Ellis told the PAC that her office was not aware of these documents. She said whatever evidence of expenditure were with the FID at the time of her probe had in fact been considered in the auditing process.

“I have not received any documentation that would give me any satisfaction that the relevant support is available for my review…I am not aware of any additional information; there is nothing in the ministry’s response that suggests that information that we indicated was not available at the time is now available for our review,” she stated.

Monroe Ellis added that “whatever information we needed at the time that would have been in possession of the FID, we had access to that documentation”.

The CMU treasurer explained that the supporting documents which the university has so far been unable to find for the US$293,000, for example, is for the lesser portion of that sum. According to him, of the amount, proof for US$225,000 had been handed over to the FID.

The committee was continuing its review of the AGD’s report on the operations of the CMU, and the education ministry’s response to the findings.

The AGD’s probe was initiated following allegations of corruption at the CMU and questions surrounding oversight by its parent ministry and former portfolio minister Ruel Reid, who is now before the courts on corruption charges, along with co-accused, head of the CMU, Professor Fritz Pinnock.

According to the report, the review of accounting and other records revealed five bank accounts that were not disclosed by the CMU and were not reflected in its general ledger.

The committee also discussed the absence of an internal auditor at the CMU, and the fact that the institution still obtained university status in 2017, despite being years behind on its audited financial statements.

According to Gardner, he had expressed his concerns about the financial statements to the previous council of the university, but there remains no formal structure in place for the position of internal auditor, although he had been asked to draft the terms of reference for the position.

Deputy president of the university, Professor Ibrahim Ajagunna, explained to the committee that attempts had been made to employ an internal auditor but this did not materialise.

Permanent secretary in the Ministry of Education Dr Grace McLean said the ministry was awaiting approval from the Ministry of Finance to create that position.

She pointed out that the process for acquiring university status is somewhat independent of the education ministry, as it is the University Council of Jamaica (UCJ) that does the quality assurance of the institutions’ systems.

“…So the matter was handled on the basis that the programmes were approved by the UCJ,” she explained.

Dr McLean said there was a delay in addressing the accounting issues, pointing out that when the CMU was transferred to the education ministry in 2018 there were a number of operational issues that had to be addressed. These included systems for additional financial support, which did not materialise until last year.

“Because we had so many operational issues to sort out with the university in 2018, it took some time for us to have a full structure in place to monitor,” she stated.