00:00The Special Report of the Auditor General on the Public Accounts for 2023 seeks to account
00:07for an understatement of some $2.5 billion in the substantive report.
00:13That report was submitted to Parliament on April 24 and did not consider the Finance
00:18Ministry's reconciliation for the variance of $2.5 billion, as visits by the Auditor
00:25General's Department could not verify it.
00:29The Auditor General did say on the two days they visited the Treasury Division, the ledger
00:34system could not be opened.
00:37On May 29, the Auditor General's Department was informed the general ledger system was
00:43adjusted to reflect the increases in revenue.
00:46The Special Report notes the decision and approval to reopen the general ledger and
00:52make adjustments were done about two months after the error was discovered, seven months
00:58after the financial year ended, and 15 months after the largest error of $2.599 billion
01:06occurred.
01:07The Inland Revenue Division explained the errors were due to decimal points being in
01:11the wrong place, which resulted in an overstatement of refund expenditure.
01:18In the Special Report findings, the Auditor General notes an absence of evidence.
01:24Adjustment vouchers to authorize changes to the general ledger accounts were not signed
01:29by the Comptroller of Accounts.
01:32Debit advice slips were not examined for unusual or material transactions.
01:38Monthly reconciliation statements on the Exchequer account were not prepared on a timely basis,
01:43nor were they signed by internal audit.
01:47Inland Revenue and Treasury Division's documents bore no signs of examination by internal audit.
01:53Auditor General Jaywanti Ramdas' Special Report says to date there is no internal audit report
01:59on the reported material misstatement of $2.599 billion.
02:05The ministry explained a central bank system malfunction resulted in the erroneous generation
02:11of overstated debit advises.
02:14The CBTT corrected the inaccuracies, but the Treasury Division does not have a record of
02:19the receipt and so the error, it says, was unknown to the Inland Revenue Division.
02:24In the Special Report, the Auditor General concluded that there was a breakdown of internal
02:29control, an ineffective internal audit, and an apparent absence of management oversight
02:35may have contributed to the legislative non-compliance with the Exchequer and Audit Act.
02:41She recommended that the Ministry of Finance's Accounting Officer be reminded of the duties
02:46of the Accounting Officer.
02:48In the past eight years, significant findings were brought to the attention of the Finance
02:52Ministry via nine management letters sent to three of their divisions.
02:57The letters were not always responded to.
03:00Arvishi Tomari, Rupnarayan, TV6 News.
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