FINANCE and Public Service Minister Fayval Williams on Wednesday refuted the insinuation in media reports that government funds amounting to $3 trillion have gone missing, stemming from Jamaica Accountability Meter Portal’s (JAMP) review of the auditor general’s annual reports.

Williams, at a post-Cabinet media briefing, insisted that the funds which a media report highlighted JAMP saying is unaccounted, have not disappeared, but the issue is that appropriation accounts due to the auditor general have not been submitted by several ministries. At the same time, she said ministries need to get up to date with their account submissions.

According to a Gleaner report, JAMP examined the auditor general’s annual reports for 16 government entities, including ministries, which revealed $3 trillion in spending that has been unaccounted for over a six- to 11-year period.

But Williams pointed out in that same article that executive director of JAMP, Jeanette Calder herself, acknowledged that the money is not missing but that ministries have been tardy in submitting reports. According to the article, Calder was presenting JAMP’s findings on government accountability during a media round-table discussion at the Alhambra Inn last week.

The article said Calder described the finding “as an accountability crisis, indicating that the serial offenders are topped by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information; the Ministry of Health and Wellness; and the Ministry of Labour and Social Security”.

In response to Jamaica Observer queries on Wednesday, Calder affirmed that she said while her report highlights unaccounted funds, “that does not mean there are any funds missing”, but again expressed concern for the delays in providing the auditor general with financial reports “because until the Government’s auditor certifies that the reports are accurate, then it cannot be said that the Government has accounted for what was done with public funds.

“In addition, we shared countless examples of financial breaches that have occurred by serial offenders within the Government that point to the fact that the safeguards that are in place to protect our funds and assets from abuse have been egregiously breached. This suggests that all is not well in those entities as it relates to respect for the financial laws, rules, and regulations. As such, there is cause for great concern regarding the quality of oversight being provided by departments of government with that responsibility and the parliamentarians who have an obligation to monitor Government’s execution of our budget,” she said.

Williams, in seeking the understanding of the public, painstakingly explained Wednesday the process involved in the submission of appropriations accounts.

“Appropriations accounts are annual reports that are to be submitted to the auditor general to allow the auditor general to do an audit. Appropriations accounts reflect the ministries’ expenditure in a financial year compared against the amounts approved by Parliament for the respective ministries. I believe it will help Jamaicans to understand the process of how money gets to the Government, because there are many safeguards along the way in the spending of of taxpayers’ money,” she said.

She noted that each year in October the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service puts out what is known as the budget call and this goes out to all ministries to compile their budget 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. After Parliament approves the budget, it is changed to [a grey] colour.

She said that during the year, on a monthly basis, ministries will submit their monthly cash flows to the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service to indicate their spend for the month and this spend could include salaries, what’s needed for capital spending, and other operational activities.

Williams stressed that to her understanding, ministries do not have cash or cheque books, noting that, “I never saw cash at the Ministry of Education…when I was there. I never saw cash at the Ministry of Science and Technology when I was there, and I’m sure across different ministries you don’t have cash that you spend.”

She noted that ministries have to go through the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service on a monthly basis with their cash flows. Any funds allocated to ministries for what that ministry is spending on goes through the accountant general for payment through the banking system to the account of the contractors or service providers.

“Notwithstanding all of that, in terms of the safeguards that are there, I must make it clear that ministries do need to get up to date with their appropriation accounts submissions to the auditor general and we at the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service are committed to working with ministries that are behind in this in terms of putting additional resources in place in order to begin to help to clear the backlog and to ensure timely completion of these reports at the standard that is required by the auditor,” she said.

Williams said the goal is to get to that place where these appropriations accounts are done in a timely manner and submitted within four months after the close of the fiscal year. She also pointed out that if accounts are not audited in a timely manner, it is difficult and takes a lot of time to go back and try to rectify that.

“You will note, based on the listing in that same report that was published by the
Gleaner, many of these appropriation accounts were outstanding during the period 2012 to 2013 and 2015 to 2016. The new Administration that came in that time would have had a difficult time bringing those accounts up to speed, and that is what we are witnessing now,” she said

The minister assured Jamaicans that while there are many safeguards in place for taxpayers money and how it is spent, I “do agree that we need to complete that final step, which is to submit the annual report to the auditor general for whatever the auditor general needs to do to approve those reports”.

In the meantime, Information Minister Senator Dr Dana Morris Dixon said that some ministries have not finished doing their accounts, which is a problem.

She explained that there was a change in system and as a result of that some ministries had issues in order to do the accounts

“In order for the auditor general to do the audits, they need the reports in a particular system, and that is why the ministries have been behind in putting their reports in that system,” she said.