KINGSTON, Jamaica – Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Fayval Williams, says her ministry is committed to putting additional resources in place to ensure timely submission of appropriations accounts to the Auditor General.

She was addressing Wednesday’s post Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House, in response to a recent report that government funds, totalling $3 trillion, have been unaccounted for across 16 government entities over a six- to 11-year period.

Stating that the funds have not gone missing, she explained that several ministries have been tardy in submitting their appropriations accounts, which reflect expenditure in a financial year compared against the amounts approved by Parliament.

She pointed out that appropriations accounts are annual reports that are to be submitted to the Auditor General to allow for an audit to be done.

“We at the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service are committed to working with ministries that are behind in terms of putting additional resources in place in order to begin to help these ministries to clear the backlog and to ensure timely completion of these reports at the standard that is required by the Auditor General,” she said.

She noted that many of the appropriations accounts “were outstanding during fiscal year 2012/2013 to the fiscal year 2015/2016, so the new administration that came in at that time would have had a difficult time bringing those accounts up the speed and that’s what we are witnessing here now.”

“But again, I say we are committed as a matter of good governance to ensure that Ministries put in the effort to get these reports done,” Williams stated.

The minister said that the goal is to have the appropriations accounts done in a timely manner and submitted within four months after the close of the fiscal year.

She commended all the ministries that are up-to-date in submitting their annual reports to the auditor general.

Minister Williams noted that while ministries need to get up-to-date with their appropriations accounts submissions to the auditor general, safeguards are in place to guide how taxpayers’ money is spent.

Explaining the process of how money is spent in government, she informed that each year in October, the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service puts out what is known as the budget call which goes out to all ministries.

“The respective ministries would compile their budgets for the year within certain guidelines and submit those to the Ministry of Finance. The budgets from each ministry are reviewed by the Ministry of Finance and the respective ministries, as the budgets have to be within prescribed limits, which are known as ceilings. The figures from these budgets are compiled into what is called the ‘yellow book’ that is presented to Parliament by March of the fiscal year for approval,” she outlined.

“After parliament approves the budget, it is changed to… a grey colour and it says as passed by the House of Representatives, and it will give the date that this was passed,” she pointed out.

She further explained that during the year, on a monthly basis, ministries will submit their monthly cash flows to the Ministry of Finance to indicate their spend for the month, which could include salaries, capital spending needs, and other operational activities.

She noted that all funds allocated to ministries for spending goes through the accountant general for payment through the banking system to the account of the contractors or service providers.

“I just want to say again to Jamaicans; there are many safeguards in place for taxpayers money and how we spend it, but I do agree that we need to complete that final step, which is to submit the annual reports to the auditor general for whatever the auditor general needs to do to approve those reports,” she stressed.

Minister of Education, Youth, Skills and Information, Senator Dana Morris Dixon reiterated that there are no missing funds in the public sector.

“I have seen the reports and I’ve seen even social media campaigns and letter writing campaigns that are happening, based on false information. The reality is that some ministries have not finished doing their accounts and that’s a problem, but there are no missing funds,” she emphasised.

“In order for the auditor general to do their audits, they need it in a particular system and that is what the ministries have been behind in putting their reports in that system so they can be audited. But they do, in fact, present reports every month to the Ministry of Finance,” she noted.

–              JIS