Staff shortage to blame for Region 4 accounting issues
- REO
Accounting issues experienced by Region Four’s Regional Administration have been put down to a 32% vacancy in its accounting unit, which is a shortage that has persisted in excess of a year, according Regional Executive Officer (REO) Pauline Lucas.
The vacancies, include positions such as Field Auditor, Assistant Field Auditor, Stock Verifier and Stores Clerk and though advertised, they have gone unfilled.
This information was brought to the attention of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) yesterday after several discrepancies were noted in the Auditor General’s (AG) 2015 report on the upkeep of accounts, specifically in relation to the maintenance of store ledgers and verification of utility transactions.
The 2015 report stated that even with the upkeep of utility registers, there was difficulty ascertaining whether payments were made for authorised meters (both electricity and water) under the control of the regional administration because an authorised list of telephone numbers and meters were not presented to be scrutinised.
Also, there was a difference of $1.168 million seen between the amount expended by the region for the payment of telephone, water and electricity charges. While analysis of the account recorded the expenditure as $117.405 million, the amount noted in the register was $116.238 million.
Furthermore, issues of non-adherence to the stores accounting procedures were noted in the AG’s report.
Among the listed problems were ‘Goods Received Notes’ not being attached to vouchers and sent to the Accounting Department, resulting in verification of the receipt of $10.921 million, which was reportedly spent for the purchase of items for the region’s education and health programme proving difficult. Notably, it was found that the store’s ledgers were last updated in 2012.
Lucus related that the absence of key personnel in the accounting unit has placed a strain on the remaining employees and that the administration has sought ways to cope with the gap as best as it can.
She was, however, warned of the possible repercussions of not placing priority of filling these positions by member of the PAC Volda Lawrence, who stressed the importance of ensuring that these critical areas are filled.
“…[What] we are talking about is the little nitty gritty positions at the bottom which we don’t put a lot of importance on but the transactions which they are asked to carry out is very important to your accountant and your finance managers and all of that because they don’t get down to that level,” she said.
Lawrence further stated that failing to do so can possibly result in the development of issues beyond the control of the administration and professionals, who “cannot do it all,” ultimately shouldering the blame.