Simpson MillerWHEN THE Auditor General begins his audit of the parish councils which Minister of Local Government Portia Simpson Miller last week ordered of three of them, he will be hard-pressed to find the information. Documents which The Sunday Gleaner acquired through the Access to Information Act revealed that the audited financial
statements for
all 13 parish councils are in shambles.
The Auditor General will discover, for example, that the last audited statements for the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation (KSAC) were prepared five years ago while those of the
Spanish Town Parish Council were last done in 2002.
But, even more damning, based on the documents and on The Sunday Gleaner's investigations, is a trail of shoddy bookkeeping, evident in the missing and incomplete records at the Ministry of Local Government. Public accountability is being dealt a severe blow not only in the parish councils, it seems, but in the ministry which has no clue as to where the documents are in the ministry. The Sunday Gleaner's staff, exercising their legal option, did a physical search for the documents which proved futile.
Director of Information and Documentation, Teisa Clarke, who was later asked for the
documents responded, "I was informed by one of the auditors that this information would be in each parish council."
There are indications too, that some mayors and members of their administrative support staff were generally unaware of the status of the councils' financial record keeping.
Mrs. Simpson Miller last week ordered an audit of the KSAC, the Spanish Town and Portmore Parish Councils, following closely on the heels of that done on the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA). The investigations by the Contractor General and the Auditor General into the state public cleansing agency confirmed the wanton mismanagement of funds, nepotism and cronyism which The Sunday Gleaner first revealed on March 27.
KSAC DEADLINE
The Government investigators will find that the most up-to-date record for the KSAC is for 2000. In a written response to a request from The Sunday Gleaner, the City Treasurer, Alvin Dawkins, advised that "the audit for the period ending March 2001 is now being done ... The accounts for the period March 2002 to March 2005 are now being finalised so that the audit can be done." According to Mr. Dawkins, the KSAC is "working towards a deadline of December 31, 2005," to bring its records up to date.
But while The Sunday Gleaner has in its possession, the KSAC's audited statements for 2000, the latest audited statements at the documentation
centre at the Ministry of Local Government are for 1999. Similarly, the latest report for the Morant Bay Parish Council is 1998, even though it submitted its reports for 2000 - 2003 to the Auditor General. The ministry is unable to give a reason for the absence of the audited statements.
Other parish councils whose audited statements are several years behind include Port Maria, Falmouth, Montego Bay, Savanna-la-Mar, Mandeville and Black River whose last statements on record go back to 2001 and 2002.
The most up-to-date records appear to be those of the Morant Bay Parish Council which advised The Sunday Gleaner that "the figures for the financial year 2003-2004 are now being finalised for submission."
The Black River Parish Council has completed its reports up to 2002 with its 2003 report now with the Auditor General for certification.
When contacted by The Sunday Gleaner, the Jamaica Labour Party's spokesman on Local Government, Shahine Robinson exclaimed, "That is quite alarming!" She added, "but St. Ann ought to be up to date because we have a very good secretary manager." St. Ann's last audited reports go back to 2002.
Mrs. Robinson declined to comment further, saying she did not have all the facts and figures before her. However, she did add, "At the risk of erring on the side of caution [systems] should be in place and if they are not ... remedies should be in place to correct them."
NOT PROPERLY KEPT
Former JLP spokesman on Local Government, Pearnel Charles was not surprised at the findings. "The records were not properly kept and there was no transparency ... accountability was zero. It was one of the criticisms of the Local Government Ministry by the Jamaica Labour Party before we won the local government elections in 2003," he said. Continued Mr. Charles, "In many instances, reports were in terrible condition, audits were not done ... They were woefully behind."
He revealed that after the JLP's victory in the 2003 Local Government elections, the party advised "all mayors and
councillors that the first order of business was to do an audit of its records, operations and so on."
According to Mr. Charles, "The new parish councils under the JLP have been working to bring the records up to date. They're working but it is difficult to bring them up to date." Mr. Charles emphasised that, as Shadow Minister for Local Government, he made a concerted effort "to work immediately to bring the books up to date".
Parish council heads seem to be blaming the situation on a lack of staff. "We've had a series of middle management resignations and then [one of] our most experienced officer ... died," said Sheldon Peart, the secretary manager of the Port Maria Parish Council. The deceased officer had worked on the audits for 1999 - 2002.
To bring the records up to date, according to Mr. Peart, the Port Maria Parish Council "had to get permission to contract a retired officer to do the subsequent years. He's doing 2002/03 and has someone understudying him ... and within another six months, we ought to be current."
However, Mr. Charles holds a contrary view insisting, "If your internal audit is up to date ... the documentation should be up to date."
Several attempts to get Mrs. Simpson Miller and Opposition leader Bruce Golding to comment proved futile.
