THE AUDITOR General, in his report for the financial year ended March 31, 2004, highlighted a number of 'deficiencies' within the National Solid Waste Authority, following an audit of the accounting records and financial transactions of the authority. Below are the deficiencies:1) Outstanding financial statements - Annual financial statements for the years 2002/2003 and 2003/2004 were not available up to the date of this report. This breached the Public Bodies Accountability Act and prevented a proper assessment of the authority's financial state of affairs.
2) Unremitted statutory deductions - Up to the time of the audit, amounts totalling approximately $21 million for employers' statutory contributions and deductions made from employees emoluments between June 2002 and March 2004 had not been remitted to the relevant collecting agencies. This exposed the authority to possible penalties, and employees may be denied access to certain benefits.
3) Unrecorded fixed assets - At the time of audit, furniture and equipment costing $10.9 million, which were acquired since 2002, had not yet been entered in the inventory register. This undermined the authority's control over its assets and the preparation of the financial statements.
4) Advance debit cards - The non-submission of receipts for petrol acquired at certain service stations by the various regional offices prevented the appropriate reconciliation to ensure that expenditure of $23 million represented a proper use of public funds.
5) Salary overpayments - Amounts totalling $25,272 were overpaid to four persons due to incorrect calculation of salary. The authority was advised to effect recovery.
