Glenda Anderson, Staff ReporterTHE GOVERNMENT has been on the receiving end of millions of dollars worth of "bounced" cheques as payment for taxes due.
At the same time it has failed to collect $3 billion in income tax and $27.3 million in General Consumption Tax (GCT) from delinquent taxpayers.
The latest Auditor-General's report revealed that taxpayers over the past year, have tendered more than $40 million in bounced cheques to various collectorates but these were later dishonoured by the banks on which they were drawn. However, there is no sympathy from the Auditor-General's Department for the tax collection agencies to which these cheques were paid. They are being accused of negligence.
Recent investigations by the Auditor-General's Department revealed that to date the sums had still not been recovered by the tax collectorates.
Attempts by The Sunday Gleaner last week to reach officials at the Inland Revenue Department for an update on efforts to recover the sums, or to address the charges were unsuccessful up to press time.
According to the report, "the dishonouring of the cheques resulted in bank charges of $63,312 being incurred by the department."
Cheques are accepted for most transactions at the island's collectorates except for motor vehicle transactions.
Companies which are not well established are also barred from presenting cheques.
A manager at the Cross Roads collectorate, who did not want to be identified, explained that a simple screening process had always been in place.
"We don't accept cheques for motor vehicle transactions and if you're on our dishonoured list then you can't pay by cheque again unless it's a manager's cheque," she said.
At the larger King Street office, one employee said that the "dishonoured" list for cheques was in effect simply an "alert" for staff members to identify transactions which may be problematic, while the general rule of not accepting personal cheques for motor vehicle transactions was in force.
Still, investigators from the Auditor-General's department have laid the blame for the discrepancies squarely at the feet of collectors.
"The main reason given for the cheques not being honoured indicated negligence and breach of the Financial Instructions by the collecting officers," the report summed up.
Dishonoured or 'bounced' cheques fall into one of three categories, Fraud Squad officials say.
They include instances where the cheque is linked to a "closed account", where it involves some degree of fraud, (reproduced cheque or fraudulent signature presented) or where the linked account has insufficient funds to cover the amount requested.
Criminal penalties may then be incurred in categories where the account has been closed or where fraud is suspected or present.
A senior source at the King Street office, declined to go on record about a general response to the Auditor-General's report. She said, however, that while she could not speak for the larger division, the collectorate had tried to act on incidences as they arose.
"It's not much, probably less than one per cent of our customers, but there are dishonoured cheques that come up and we try to recover those as best we can."
She said that the nature of some cases was often such that they were not pursued with a view to getting criminal penalties for the offender.
"A cheque may be dishonoured for several reasons. There may be an error with a date or a figure, so it depends on the situation and if the person is willing to make amends then we try to accommodate," she said.
Constable Natasha Green of the island's Constabulary Communication Network (CCN) confirmed too that there had been no reports of dishonoured cheques from the island's collectorates.
