RECENTLY appointed Clerk of the Houses of Parliament Colleen Lowe has moved swiftly to address concerns about the administration of the financial affairs of the legislature.

The Jamaica Observer has learnt that Lowe called senior managers of the Houses of Parliament to meeting on Wednesday to discuss worrying irregularities discovered in internal audit findings for the Houses of Parliament over the past five years.

Among the irregularities identified in a recent special audit are underpayment and overpayment to several officers, including the recently retired Clerk to the House of Parliament Valrie Curtis who was underpaid to the tune of $1.5 million; National Housing Trust contributions deducted and not turned over or incorrectly deducted; and incorrect calculations of the salaries to the staff of the Office of the Political Ombudsman which saw them being not paid benefits totalling more than $15 million.

“Discrepancies identified were due to a non-existence of a check and balance system,” the auditors declared, while asserting that “management should ensure that all amounts owed to the NHT, in keeping with the NHT Act, are paid over to avoid any legal ramifications and embarrassment”.

In a letter on Tuesday to 10 senior managers who were summoned to the meeting in the Government conference room at 2:00 pm, Lowe indicated that they were to review a summary of the audit findings and the responses provided.

The letter indicated that the audit findings were formally brought to the new clerk’s attention on Tuesday.

It said the purpose of the meeting was to provide a detailed overview of the audit findings, highlight areas of concern and to develop strategies to address areas of deficiency.

Lowe told the senior administrative leadership at Gordon House that she believes it is crucial for a discussion to take place on the potential impact of the audit findings on Parliament’s operations and how risks may be mitigated.

The clerk said the meeting would look at ways to move forward in a manner that treats with the affairs of Gordon House with consideration for accountability, probity and good governance.

According to Observer sources, the audit, which was to be examined by the managers, revealed a raft of administrative, managerial, human resource-related and accounting breaches that transpired at the Parliament between January 2019 and March 2024.

The special audit report reportedly revealed that several discrepancies took place as recently as 2023 concerning how salary payments were made.

The internal auditors also raised concern that over the past few years the leadership of the Houses of Parliament has not displayed the required awareness to respond to breaches identified and failed to take corrective steps.

“Management should ensure that they themselves are aware of policies, regulations, Acts and circulars which govern areas they supervise and if in doubt, they should seek guidance from relevant authorities,” the auditors stated.

According to the special audit report, in 2022 several errors were identified with how increments and seniority allowances were being paid resulting in overpayment and underpayment.

The report further stated that, “as a general observation, the salary process is considered to be unsatisfactory and it was observed that corrections from recent audit reports are yet to be resolved and are still outstanding”.

The auditors urged the management of Parliament to conduct an assessment of all the support staff of parliamentarians to ensure that underpayment of gratuity is corrected and outstanding amounts paid with immediate effect.

The auditors revealed instances of incorrect payments in travel allowances to parliamentarians and reminded the management of the administrative affairs of Gordon House that they should ensure that all outstanding audit findings are addressed in a timely manner.

The audit report also recommended that with immediate effect the director of the Human Resource Department at Parliament should ensure that corrective actions are taken to resolve the error where some members of staff were appointed at the wrong salary scale.