The Permanent Secretary informed the Committee that the Ministry until recently had no IT skills at the appropriate levels. Their target is to have an IT policy by end of 2017. Regarding the full functionality of the system, he informed the Committee that they are currently in discussion with the service provider to enable it to deal with depreciation and revenue processes which were said to be the outstanding functions. He pointed out that the Chief Accountant was the supervisor as opposed to the Administrator of the software. He went further to state that they did not feel that there was any compromise by having the accountant there.
The Committee noted with concern that the Permanent Secretary has not been consistent in his responses. To the auditors he indicated that the IT officers did not have the capacity to administer the software and as a result, the Chief Accountant was acting as the Administrator. During oral evidence session, he then denied that the Chief Accountant was an Administrator. He blamed his junior staff for the responses given to the auditors. The Committee was very much concerned with the conduct of the Accounting Officer in dealing with audit matters. He displayed total disregard of the audit processes and as a result, the Committee could not place reliance on the evidence he gave.
4.6.1.1 The Committee recommends that the Ministry should, by 31st August 2017, submit to Parliament reliable evidence regarding the level of utilisation of the computerised accounting system and such evidence to include the officers administering the system.
4.6.1.2 The Committee recommended that the Civil Service Commission should assess the conduct of the Permanent Secretary in relation to audits and take appropriate action by 31st December 2017.
4.6.2 Suspense Account
Audit observed that the Fund’s balance sheet had a suspense figure of $2 548 991 and auditors could not verify the source of this figure as supporting ledger accounts were not being maintained. It was established that in 2009 the accumulated figure included an amount of $2 499 758, whose origin could not be established. The suspense figure has been carried on over the years without being investigated. Continued failure by the Fund to investigate the source of the balance affects the integrity of the financial statements and errors may occur undetected.
The Ministry attributed the figure to the period prior to the dollarization and indicated that they have sought guidance from the Auditor General in addressing the observation. However, the Ministry had simply removed the figure from the financial statement without supporting documentation showing how it has been removed from the financial statements.
4.6.2.1 The Committee recommends that the Ministry should fully investigate the suspense account and clear the balance by 30th September, 2017.
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