Audit uncovers $81 million worth of discrepancies in municipal welfare spending
Published:Tuesday | January 14, 2025 | 6:56 PM
Four municipal corporations have been flagged for failing to provide information to verify payments totalling $81 million under the Government's Municipal Social Assistance Programme (MSAP).
The Auditor General's Department (AuGD) identified the issues based on records examined between 2017-18 and 2023-24 in the St Ann, Portmore, St Catherine, and Kingston and St Andrew municipal corporations.
The details are contained in a report on a performance audit of Jamaica's welfare system, which was released by Parliament on Tuesday.
The Ministry of Local Government and Community Development (MLGCD) established the MSAP to support individuals living below the poverty line. It is delivered by the parish authorities and covers social housing, indigent housing, education grants, and funeral grants, in addition to administrative support for the provision of these services.
Findings of the AuGD from its visit to the four municipal corporations:
St Ann Municipal Corporation: An $8.4 million shortfall in reported expenditure. While $26.6 million was reported for 2020-21 and 2022-23, only $18.2 million could be verified through vouchers. Additionally, for 2023-24, reported expenditure of $6 million contradicted verified vouchers totalling $11.6 million.
Portmore Municipal Corporation: A $7.2 million discrepancy was identified, with reported expenditure of $22 million from April 2020 to March 2024 falling short of verified spending of $29.2 million.
St Catherine Municipal Corporation: A "substantial variance" of $52 million emerged as auditors verified $73.5 million in vouchers compared to the $125.5 million reported.
Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation: Of the 1,263 vouchers sampled, totalling $150.6 million, auditors could not verify 239 vouchers valued at $13.3 million due to missing documentation.
The ministry and the municipal corporations "failed" to consistently provide required reports for the $1.53 billion allocated to the MSAP between 2017-18 and 2023-24, according to the Auditor General's Department.
It stated that this "history of non-compliance" undermined the ministry’s ability to track the programme’s effectiveness.
It also noted that the Desmond McKenzie-led ministry "did not prepare all the annual reports for the period to account for the $1.53 billion allocated to the programme."
"MLGCD provided only three annual reports for 2018-19, 2020-21, and 2021-22. Whereas the reports for 2020-21 and 2021-22 reflected expenditure totalling $144 million for only seven of the 14 municipal corporations, the report for 2018-19 did not include any information on the project’s expenditure. Due to the shortcomings in the reporting process, we remain uncertain about how MLGCD ensured the effective utilisation of its resources and assessed the overall impact of the programme," the AuGD said.
The permanent secretary in the ministry is Marsha Henry-Martin.
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