By Prince Moore
An Auditor General's Report has revealed that four municipal corporations have failed to provide information on verified payments totalling $81 million under the Government's Municipal Social Assistance Programme.
The Auditor General's Department identified the issues, based on records examined over the period 2017-18 and 2023-24 in the St Ann, Portmore, St Catherine, and Kingston & St Andrew municipal corporations.
The report on a performance audit of Jamaica's welfare system, was tabled Tuesday in the House of Representatives.
The Municipal Social Assistance Programme was established by the Ministry of Local Government & Rural Development to support people living below the poverty line.
The report shows an $8.4 million shortfall in reported expenditure at the St Ann Municipal Corporation.
It says while $26.6 million was reported for 2020 to 2021 and 2022 to 2023, only $18.2 million could be verified through vouchers.
In addition, reported expenditure of six million dollars contradicted verified vouchers totalling $11.6 million for 2023 to 2024.
For the Portmore Municipal Corporation, the Auditor General's report indicates that a $7.2 million dollar discrepancy was identified.
It says reported expenditure of $22 million from April 2020 to March 2024 fell short of verified spending of $29.2 million.
At the St Catherine Municipal Corporation, the report highlighted that a variation of $52 million emerged as auditors verified $73.5 million in vouchers compared with the $125.5 million reported.
For the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation, the reported says, 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.
According to the Auditor General's Department, the ministry and the municipal corporations failed to consistently provide required reports for the $1.53 billion allocated to the Municipal Social Assistance Programme between 2017 to 18 and 2023 to 24.
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