Auditor General flagged spending on youth project in 2020
Published:Friday | December 6, 2024 | 12:10 AMEdmond Campbell/Senior Staff Reporter
The Auditor General’s Department in 2020 flagged the lack of supporting documents for money spent under the Office of the Prime Minister’s (OPM) Youth Employment in Digital and Animation Industries (YEDAI) Project.
On November 29, 2024, the Major Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Agency (MOCA) arrested two former employees of the HEART/NSTA Trust who are involved in an alleged fraud linked to the YEDAI project. MOCA has subsequently charged Kevina Atkins and Simoes Ellis for fraud.
In her 2019-2020 annual report, Auditor General Pamela Monroe Ellis highlighted that during the audit fieldwork of the YEDAI, the payment files were reviewed to verify a sample of project expenses. She revealed that files received did not include supporting documentation for the money expended by HEART/NSTA Trust.
The auditor general reported then that the Project Implementation Unit (PIU) in the OPM forwarded reports/reconciliations received from HEART/NSTA Trust but no supporting documents though requests had been made both verbally and via email.
According to the auditor general, in November 2020, HEART/NSTA Trust submitted a “database” detailing the enrolment for the YEDAI project. However, the “database” contained a number of discrepancies, including duplicate participant entries, name fields that were either empty or contained numbers, and training date fields that were also empty.
Consequently, the auditor general said her department was unable to place reliance on the data provided. She said the discrepancies were communicated to HEART/NSTA Trust.
Monroe Ellis said in 2020 that management was advised to strengthen its controls and monitoring of the HEART/NSTA Trust arrangement and ensure that independent verification checks were carried out to support the expenditures relating to the project.
When Atkins and Ellis appeared before the court, they were charged in relation to more than $4.9 million out of $17 million currently under investigation in the HEART/NSTA Trust fraud probe.
Atkins is charged with receiving stolen property, possession of criminal property, and conspiracy to defraud, and Ellis is charged with larceny as a servant, possession of criminal property, and conspiracy.
According to the allegations against them, between December 2018 and April 2019, Ellis prepared lists of participants to receive stipends under the HEART/NSTA Trust’s YEDAI project. Fictitious names were listed, and the funds linked to those names were diverted to his and Atkins’ bank accounts. The anomalies were eventually detected by persons at the National Commercial Bank, leading to the fraud probe.
The YEDAI project was intended to support youth employment in Jamaica by fostering youth entrepreneurship in the digital and animation industries and developing the animation industry in Jamaica.
The project is funded by a US$20-million loan from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and was scheduled to last for approximately five years and five months with effect from September 3, 2014. However, the project was extended to July 30, 2021.