Editorial | Fix public sector accounts

While any amount that helps to get the job done is welcome, given the scale of the problem, an allocation of J$18.8 million in this fiscal year, presumably to pay private professionals for helping to clear the backlog of unaudited financial statements of government ministries and agencies, seems inadequate.

In that regard, Finance Minister Fayval Williams, who highlighted the sum in her Budget speech on Tuesday as being among the “very important non-hurricane work that government must do”, as well the auditor general, Pamela Monroe Ellis, whose office is managing the project, should offer better particulars on the programme.

It is critical, and urgent, that there be full transparency and accountability of expenditure of taxpayers’ money, and for the government to provide assurance that after this effort legislated accounting rules are followed. When they are not, the people responsible must be held to account, including, where appropriate, made to make restitution for losses, or face the criminal court.

But while the focus of financial and performance accountability has largely been on the central and local governments, swathes of QUANGOs escape serious scrutiny, although many are years behind in either completing or tabling their annual reports. Or the ministries or ministers to which they are responsible are tardy in having their reports cleared by Cabinet for tabling in Parliament. Either way, the public should know.

In the event, of 164 such agencies listed on the website of the Cabinet Office, only nine, that is five per cent, were up to date with their annual reports. Which, in this case, means they had published and tabled reports for the 2024/25 financial year, which ended on March 31, 2025. Notably, six of those eight semi-independent agencies fell under the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) or the Cabinet Office.

Another 10 QUANGOs, six per cent, are listed as having presented audited reports up to the 2023/24 fiscal year, and another 18 (11 per cent), up to 2022/23.

NOT TRIVIAL ISSUES

These are not trivial issues over which officious people with too little to do are nit-picking. They involve large amounts of money, which, ultimately, belongs to the citizens of Jamaica.

Recall that in 2024 when the the good governance NGO, Jamaica Accountability Meter Portal (JAMP) – using data contained the auditor general’s annual report for that year – concluded that, going back more than a decade, government ministries departments and agencies (MDAs) had spent over J$3 trillion which the AuG couldn’t properly audit because of the absence of proper appropriations accounts or financial statements. Looked at another way, that amount of money is roughly equivalent to the government’s budget for the current fiscal year, without taking into account the time value of money.

Indeed, the scenes of two years ago remain vivid of the former permanent secretary in the health ministry, Dunstan Bryan, attempting to ridicule the auditor general’s highlighting of his ministry’s failure to file financial reports for over J$700 million. Those outstanding accounts stretched back over a decade. When tempers cooled, the omission was blamed on an insufficiency of qualified accounting staff, an argument raised by other ministries, some of whose unaudited amounts were more than the Health Ministry’s.

The auditor’s general report for 2024/25 hints at pockets of improvement in keeping proper accounts, which can be appropriately reviewed and audited. It also pointed to instances where public sector managers, having acknowledged the scope of the crisis, appear to be willing to do things to improve the situation.

The Houses of Parliament is one such entity, which had six years of outstanding appropriations accounts, going back to 2018/2019, covering J$10.66 billion.

INADEQUACIES

Accounts for four of the years were presented to the auditor general, but returned because of inadequacies. Said Ms Monroe Ellis in her report: “Management subsequently indicated that having regard to the scale of the problem and the technical complexity of the backlog, management has initiated steps to engage the services of a suitably qualified external consultant … to provide specialised support to reconcile and where necessary reconstruct outstanding appropriations account.”

The Gleaner appreciates such initiatives. However, the obligation is to get it right first time and therefore why it is important to hold the accountable officers responsible when things go awry. The system must also mark the repeat offenders – of which the municipalities are notorious – identify patterns in their failures and why they persist.

And this goes not only for the central government, but also the QUANGOs, which according to law, should produce annual reports, including financial statements, within three months of the close of their financial year, unless given additional time. The bosses of those that don’t can be prosecuted.

If the system is too onerous, there must be a frank and rational debate of the matter and a workable solution found that doesn’t undermine transparency and accountability. But taxpayers can’t continue to pour money into MDAs and semi-independent agencies, pay for their efficient management, and accept lax and unaccountable management.