Health ministry blames staff turnover, system issues for delay in financial reports
Published:Friday | June 21, 2024 | 12:09 AMSashana Small/Staff Reporter
Permanent Secretary Dustan Bryan has blamed the death, migration, and retirement of former staff for the Ministry of Health and Wellness’ inability to finalise its appropriation accounts for submission to the auditor general.
The Auditor General’s Department is awaiting appropriation accounts spanning a decade – from 2013-2014 to 2022-2023 – to review how taxpayers’ money amounting to nearly $700 billion was spent by the ministry.
Section 24(1) of the Financial Administration and Audit (FAA) Act stipulates that accounting officers should submit, to the minister and the auditor general, appropriation accounts for expenditure for each financial year within four months after the end of a financial year.
Speaking at a press briefing on Thursday as The Gleaner again highlighted the issue, Bryan said that among the challenges preventing the ministry from meeting its obligations under the FAA Act is the number of unsigned payment vouchers.
“One of the major issues that we’re having now is that officers from this particular setting are being asked to sign off information from many, many years back, and some of the officers are unwilling to sign off on transactions that they’re not a party to because the persons that should be able to sign off on these transaction are either overseas and cannot be located or have passed away,” he said.
Adding to the delay, Bryan stated, is the fact that “some of the data is in manual form”, which he said makes access challenging, given the period of time for which the data is to be gathered.
“This is a large ministry,” he said. “A lot of the transactions that we have to do cover thousands and thousands of records, and you’ll anticipate that [going through] 10 years in the back of records is a bit of a challenge.”
Bryan, who was appointed permanent secretary in 2018, revealed that some of the data is also missing.
Challenges with the FinMan accounting server have also retarded the ministry’s ability to provide the appropriation accounts, Bryan asserted. He noted that the health ministry wrote to the Ministry of Finance up to April of this year to indicate this.
Further, for financial years 2018-2019 and 2019-2020, he pointed to system-related and accounting errors, which are being investigated by the ministry’s accounts team and the Accountant General’s Department.
“The appropriations accounts are very important, and the ministry is seized with the importance … . They are a critical part of the accountability metrics for the Government of Jamaica,” said Bryan.
The health ministry reported early last year that the appropriations accounts for fiscal years 2013-2014 to 2022-2023 had been completed and submitted to its Internal Audit Unit for verification.
‘Should regularise’ in two months
On Thursday, Bryan said that within the next two months, the ministry “should regularise” the appropriation accounts for fiscal years spanning 2020 to 2023. He noted that “the backlog [years] are where we have the significant challenge”.
“If you understand the process, the internal auditors receive the accounts, but they have to do the verification, and it is that verification that is causing a lot of the issues because the auditors are saying this particular transaction was not signed in 2014, for example. We need it to be signed off on,” he said.
The health ministry appeared before the Public Accounts Committee last year on this matter. Subsequently, Bryan said a plan of action was developed to regularise its reports.
To date, he said the ministry has spent more than $40 million in overtime payments for the regularisation of the appropriation accounts. So far, the accounts for the Bellevue Hospital for Children and the Government Chemist Department have been regularised.
Stating that this is an issue across administrations, Bryan emphasised the ministry’s commitment to bringing the accounts up to date.
“It is not new to this ministry, and, of course, we try our very best to attack it frontally because we understand the importance of providing these reports,” he said.