Chair of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament, Jermaine Figueira yesterday advocated for engineers and clerks of works to be held accountable for overpayments made based on their approvals of incomplete or substandard works.
“A lot of the time when these issues arise at PAC the contractor is the one who is considered the guilty person when he doesn’t sign off on the work. We need to start looking at the engineers who sign off on these works. Let them carry some of the responsibility for these overpayments because the contractor does deal with these finances,” Figueira observed.
Auditor General Deodat Sharma proffered his agreement noting that it is not only the contractors who are at fault for overpayments.
“Whenever there is overpayments the law requires that we recover the money but I do agree with you that other persons involved should also suffer some consequences and the law is very clear that if you falsify documents then Section 85 of the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act (is violated) … I will ensure that that message is sent out to the accounting officers,” Sharma promised.
At the time the committee was examining the accounts of the Ministry of Home Affairs formerly the Ministry of Public Security.
Among the overpayments made to several contractors was $1.273 million on a contract for the rehabilitation of the Kamarang Police Station in 2010.
The contract which was awarded for a sum of $3.348 million saw amounts totalling $2.391 million paid on “certified works” but an audit office examination found 20 discrepancies in measured works.
Since 2010 the Ministry has been able to clear to the satisfaction of the Audit Office $272,750 leaving a balance of $1 million to be recovered. Eleven years later that sum is still to be recovered.
Yesterday, representatives of the Ministry told the PAC that despite a 2018 Court Order directing that the sum be reimbursed within 12 months the Contractor has failed to settle the debt.
“The contractor has paid $40,000,” of that sum, the Ministry’s senior engineer revealed while the Permanent Secretary indicated that the Attorney General has been contacted for advice on recovering the outstanding sum.
“We will be considering summoning the contractor in August for a further update,” The PS promised.
