Auditor General finds overpayment history in education minister, other financial discrepancies

The report of the Auditor General laid in the Senate Tuesday has revealed that in the period October 2010 to September 2011 there were 931 cases of overpayment totalling $8.5 million in the Ministry of Education. 

The report said the ministry was able to recover $1.5 million of the money. 

However it noted another disturbing fact - that this pattern of overpayment has been an ongoing matter during the previous Manning PNM administration. It said between 2005 and 2011 the overpayment was $41.2 million.
"There has been a steady increase in overpayments over the past seven years," the report said. It recommended action to reverse the trend.

The report also stated that at the Finance Ministry, bank statements for accounts held at Central Bank were not produced for audit. 

These involved payouts to policyholders of Clico and British American Trinidad Ltd, payouts to trade unions, credit union and payouts to depositors and shareholders of the Hindu Credit Union Co-op Society.

Also at the Finance Ministry, formal contracts were not produced for 31 of the 32 contract employees. The Foreign Affairs Ministry, the report stated, did not produce contracts for audit for two contractors for refurbishment works in which expenditure totalled $1.9 million.

The report highlighted some other issues:

• In December 2009 (during the previous administration) the Local Government Ministry leased office and car park space and for security services but the premises have not been occupied to date
• Expenditure for the financial year for the leader totalled $9.8 million, and since inception of the lease, the amount paid up to September 30, 2011 was $17.4 million
• Payments totalling $248,000 were made in September to a supplier for 30 desktop computers for computerisation of the judiciary. The computers were not seen on December 2, 2011. The contract between the judiciary and recipients did not record serial numbers
• 30 laptops and cases were purchased for $256,132.50 and 20 at a cost of $161,795. But at the time of audit, only 12 laptops were on hand