ALL 14 of Jamaica’s municipal corporations had outstanding financial statements for the fiscal year 2024/2025, despite only seven being affected by Hurricane Melissa, according to the Auditor General’s Department (AGD).

In its 2025 Annual Report tabled in Parliament last Tuesday, the department further revealed that the municipal corporations and a Parochial Revenue Fund had failed to submit a combined total of 95 financial statements at the time the report was prepared, with outstanding statements dating back years. The absences place the entities in breach of the Local Government (Financing and Financial Management) Act.

The report stated that the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Local Government and Community Development is working closely with each municipal corporation to develop scheduled plans for the completion of the outstanding financial statements.

Additionally, the permanent secretary noted that the ministry will provide targeted oversight and support — particularly in the areas of information technology and finance and accounts — especially as seven municipal corporations were directly impacted by Hurricane Melissa. These include St Elizabeth, Westmoreland, Hanover, St James, Trelawny, Manchester, and St Ann.

The St Ann Municipal Corporation topped the list of worst offenders with 15 outstanding financial statements going back to 2010/2011.

Other offenders were the Westmoreland Municipal Corporation with 11 outstanding financial statements from as far back as 2014/2015, while the St Thomas Municipal Corporation had 10 outstanding statements dating back to 2015/2016.

Clarendon and the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal corporations had nine outstanding statements each from 2016/2017, while the St Mary Municipal Corporation had eight from as far back as 2017/2018.

Additionally, the Hanover and St James Municipal corporations had six outstanding statements each, while the St Catherine Municipal Corporation had five.

The Portmore, Portland, and Trelawny Municipal corporations had four each, St Elizabeth had two, and Manchester Municipal Corporation had one outstanding statement for 2024/2025.

The auditor general report further noted the absence of accounting records for the St Thomas, St Mary, Hanover, and Portmore Municipal corporations. An audit of the financial statements of the St Catherine Municipal Corporation from 2009/2010 to 2012/2013 revealed weaknesses in the controls over cash and cash equivalents, receivables, liabilities, revenue and expenditure.

A breakdown of the findings showed that for the St Thomas Municipal Corporation financial statements for 2012/2013, the auditor general was unable to obtain sufficient appropriate evidence to verify receivables amounting to $66 million, liabilities amounting to $54 million, expenditure totalling $287 million, and equity totalling $98 million.

“The management of the St Thomas Municipal Corporation indicated that they were unable to locate the relevant accounting records due to the lapse of time. Consequently, I was unable to perform key audit procedures to determine whether these amounts represent bona fide transactions/ balances or whether any adjustments were necessary,” said Auditor General Pamela Monroe Ellis in the report.

She added that there were unresolved differences of $18 million between the revenue and the per cash books and total revenues per trial balance. These differences were unable to be reconciled and management was advised that appropriate steps will be taken to implement the necessary corrective actions.

Financial statements for the St Mary Municipal Corporation for the year 2015/2016 also revealed an absence of accounting recording to support cash and cash equivalents of $73 million, receivables of $32 million, liabilities of $98 million, staff costs of $190 million, and reserves of $65 million. Management advised that the relevant records could not be located due to the lapse of time.

For the financial year 2017/2018 and 2018/2019 there was also an absence of accounting records for the Hanover Municipal Corporation.

“Management reported that they were unable to locate some of the accounting records due to the passage of time and an IT system failure that occurred in December 2022, which resulted in the loss of accounting information for the periods under review,” the auditor general said, adding that a draft ICT policy has been developed and is being finalised with input from the ministry.

For the Portmore Municipal Corporation, management reported that a security breach in September — resulting in damage to the municipality’s accounting server and software, including its backup server — resulted in the absence of accounting records for the 2017/2018 financial year. Management was advised to strengthen its controls, and subsequently advised that steps have been taken to improve relevant controls over the accounting records.

MONROE ELLIS… her department’s annual report was tabled in Parliament last Tuesday