Careless gov�t accountants leave billions lying idle
Bame Piet | Tuesday June 27, 2017 17:11
It is either the officers are unable to account for the funds or they do not know what to do with the funds, says the report issued last week.
These funds were at some point part of defunct ministries, unclaimed deposits to the Consolidated Fund, or the officers could not trace their origins, or give any clear explanations.
The AG’s observation is that these accounts relate to lack of proper maintenance and monitoring of the accounts to ensure that the balances represent true liabilities of government as well as comply with the applicable laws and other relevant conditions, especially where large amounts are involved.
“The totals of the deposit balances under these accounts as at March 31, 2016, were P2,018,026,482 credits and P56,406,033 debits, more than half of which were the results of un-reconciled and unadjusted balances, reflecting lack of proper attention to these accounts”.
The AG further observed that out of the amount, there was just over P1 billion that was for the then Ministry of Education and Skills Development, which was equivalent to an advance loan to a commercial bank for the payment of allowances for students under the government sponsorship.
“The uncertainty and lack of explanation of the state of this balance has the effect of distorting the totals to a significant extent,” says the AG.
The AG also observes that the payment of taxes is not taken seriously by government accountants as there was P41.8 million that was not accounted for, which had been lying idle for several years and P557,463 that was either an accounting error of commission or overpayments.
“Despite this matter having been the subject of progress reporting to the Public Accounts Committee in the past, there is still no improvement in this area,” the report further states. The 2005 take over of community junior secondary schools also gave birth to unexplained expenditure that was not in the initial agreement.
According to the AG, the takeover agreement prescribed that the Ministry of Education would retain P57,639,007 in a deposit account to finance outstanding commitments in the schools which were to be completed within a year.
“In the event, the deposit account has been retained ever since and used for purposes beyond the ones agreed, which resulted in over-expenditure of P22,886,698 which is yet to be cleared.”
The poverty eradication scheme under the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development has not been left out and a debit balance of P30,455,434 which was incurred in 2013 has not been cleared. The funds were for implementation of the programme on behalf of the Ministry of State President.
These instances give an indication of the extent of tardiness which Accounting Officers deal with matters which have implications on the accounts of their ministries, the AG lamented, adding that proper and timeous action on government books is lacking.
The AG accused the then Ministry of Education and Skills Development of being the worst enemy of public funds, citing over P250 million for studentsloans for which recovery was very slow despite promises to do better.
“The accounting officer has assured the Public Accounts Committee that he is continuously tracing the defaulters under the grant loan scheme and carrying out investigations and reconciliations of the advance loans balances.”