Edmond Campbell, Senior Staff Reporter

AN AUDIT of the St Joseph's Teachers' College in St Andrew by the Auditor General's Department (AGD) has uncovered gaping holes in the management of the educational institution.

In its 2011-2012 annual report, tabled in Parliament on Tuesday, the auditor general discovered that audited financial statements for the years 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 were not submitted to the portfolio ministry as required by the Education Regulation.

The auditor qualified the accounts for the years ended March 31, 2008 to 2010 because the college did not provide sufficient and appropriate evidence to account for $689,728.

St Joseph's Teachers' College was chided for not maintaining adequate accounting records which prevented the AGD from verifying the accuracy and completeness of the account balances.

"The bank reconciliation as at March 31, 2012, included reconciling items of $90,968 and stale-dated cheques of $1.1 million from as far back as 2007," the auditor general said.

Another glaring finding of the audit was that the bursar at the institution did not present to the auditors with the requisite control records and validation reports from the bank to confirm the accuracy of the payroll.

"Additionally, the salary changes bore no evidence that they were checked by a senior officer. The watchmen were paid overtime but an attendance register was not in place to enable verification of the hours claimed," the report added.

The auditor general said it was unable to verify the authenticity of payments totalling $11.1 million, as the vouchers and supporting documents were not presented.

edmond.campbell@gleanerjm.com