PAC to grill Bryan tomorrow
PS to address reported breaches of FinMin regulations
Published:Monday | April 17, 2023 | 12:55 AM
When Dunstan Bryan appears before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament on Tuesday, the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Health and Wellness will face questions on reported breaches of finance ministry regulations.
Following a two-year audit, an Auditor General’s Department (AuGD) report tabled in Parliament last November revealed that the ministry lacked transparency in its payments, which totalled $293 million for quarantine facilities.
The report said that the ministry was also unable to show formal contracts for infrastructural works amounting to $124 million.
Auditor General Pamela Monroe Ellis also found weaknesses in the controls over COVID-19 fixed assets acquisition and regulatory breaches in the preparation and maintenance of payment vouchers.
Bryan had indicated to The Gleaner last November that he would respond to the 136-page report at the PAC meeting.
The audit was conducted between May 2020 and June 2022, following the $8-billion allocation to the health ministry and some $1.1 billion given to the Ministry of Labour and Social Security by the Government to aid in the country’s COVID-19 response.
Another issue highlighted was that the ministry could not confirm how $174 million transferred to three entities – the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, the National Solid Waste Management Authority, and a non-governmental organisation (NGO) – was used.
“We noted that the NGO spent $14 million of the $20 million it received on activities unrelated to the COVID-19 emergency. Further, the movement of funds from one [ministry] to another must be approved by the Ministry of Finance. This appeared not to have been done,” the report said.
The health ministry had said it would seek the requisite approvals from the finance ministry and take steps to recover from the NGO funds spent on non-COVID-19 activities.
Bryan is expected to provide an update on whether the funds spent on non-COVID-19 activities by the NGO had been recovered by his ministry.
The AuGD report revealed that the health ministry made payments totalling $337 million to seven hotels and guesthouses to provide quarantine accommodations but had a formal contract with only one of the service providers. That contract accounted for $44 million.
Monroe Ellis said that in the absence of formal terms and conditions, the ministry was exposed to unbudgeted liability claims and varying payment arrangements in a context where one service provider unexpectedly asked the ministry to pay the facility’s electricity bill and 90 per cent of water charges.
The ministry also paid another of the service providers $3 million for sanitisation and cleaning at three of the seven facilities in addition to the rental for the accommodations.
The AuGD said the arrangement breached Section 53 of the Financial Regulations, which requires accounting officers to agree on the terms and conditions for the provision of service prior to implementation.
In the case of the eight suppliers for infrastructural works, the AuGD said that the health ministry did not report to the National Contracts Commission the justification for engaging the contractors using the direct contracting methodology.
At the time of the report, the ministry explained that the exigencies of the COVID-19 pandemic required these works to be executed at “very short notice”.
The permanent secretary is also expected to explain why his ministry spent $2 million to purchase 45 televisions and 15 tablets. The AuGD had said it could not be determined how the acquisitions related to the COVID-19 response.
Additionally, the health ministry did not include in its inventory assets purchased at costs totalling $23 million.
At the same time, the permanent secretary is expected to shed light on why the ministry failed to carry out an assessment and document lessons learnt from previous health emergencies such as the Zika and chikungunya outbreaks.
An AuGD investigation concluded that there was no evidence that the health ministry incorporated post-event reviews to aid in responding to future health emergencies. It also highlighted at the time of her report in March 2023 that the ministry had not conducted an evaluation of the lessons learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic although it acknowledged the importance of the formal assessment and documentation of the lessons learnt.