Billions in unaccounted for funds at Municipal Corporations "unsurprising"

By Nakinskie Robinson    

 

Co-chair of the Advocates Network Robert Stephens says it is unsurprising that billions of dollars in the possession of Municipal Corporations were unaccounted for, as disclosed by the Auditor General in her 2022-2023 annual report.

 

In that report, 22 disclaimers of opinion were issued to several municipal corporations for failing to properly account for the expenditure.

 

A disclaimer of opinion means the Auditor General cannot provide input or verify financial statements submitted due to a lack of the necessary information and evidence to do so.

 

Mr. Stephens says the issue is not new within local authorities and culpability is severely lacking in local government. 

 

"I think that the whole question of accountability of government, and in particular, the parish councils, has been lacking for many, many years. We hear about, for instance, the St. Ann Municipal Corporation, 14 outstanding statements from 2009 through to [20]23. That is absolutely ridiculous," he contended. 

 

"You also have a situation where we are not seeing or feeling the effects of the local parish councils, in terms of the things that they are supposed to be doing, they are not doing them very. And they are not accounting for the money that they get, which in many cases is very limited, but at the same time, it is not being accounted for. That is ridiculous," Mr. Stephens maintained. 

 

He was a guest Friday on the Morning Agenda on Power 106.

 

Auditor General Pamela Munroe Ellis, in her report, said for the fiscal periods spanning 2006-2007 to 2013-2014, the St. James Municipal Corporation did not provide financial records to support more than $5.6 billion in expenditure and over $3.9 billion in revenue.

 

The Portmore Municipal Corporation did not submit accounting records to support more than $955.4 million in spending.

 

The report also detailed that over $2.5 billion could not be supported in financial records for the Manchester Municipal Corporation from 2013 to 2014 and 2016 to 2017.

 

Other municipalities flagged were Clarendon, Portland and St. Thomas. 

 

Meanwhile, former president of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica Howard Mitchell argued that existing legislation, including the Local Government Accountability Act, simply lacks teeth and if properly enacted, would ideally hold delinquents to account.

 

He added that there is a deficiency in training and management skills for those within the local government framework.   

 

"It's a function of the tight centralisation or controll by central government. It's also a function of the inadequacies of the political system.... But it also demonstrates a mindset that says that we're comfortable when we are with central government because we don't have to report. And until that culture, that mindset is addressed and addressed by incentives and by punishment, then you can't begin to expect a change," Mr. Mitchell asserted.   

 

He was a also a guest on the Morning Agenda on Power 106 FM.