MONROVIA — The Ministry of Post and Telecommunications under then-minister Cooper Kruah has come under intense scrutiny from the General Auditing Commission (GAC) for reportedly failing to provide credible evidence of financial expenses from 2016-2019.
By Selma Lomax, [email protected]
More than 20 financial misconduct issues were identified under the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications during the period under review by the (GAC).
Highlights of the issues raised concerning the transactions totalling more than US$500,000.00 and LD$10 million from 2016-2019 audit report include – irregularities in cash, procurement, and personnel management at the ministry.
As revealed by the audit report, one key area raised was that the ministry did not prepare and present approved financial statements in accordance with the Public Financial Management Act of 2009.
Under Kruah -led Post and Telecommunications, the ministry spent an excess of US$790,131.91 of its approved budget for the fiscal period without evidence of a supplementary budget. Noticeably, there were differences of US$272,450.20 and L$4,512,595.60 between the total of revenue deposited into the designated account for revenue per the bank statements and the total of revenue reported per the Annual Revenue Report, the audit report revealed.
Narrating circumstances of financial malpractices, the audit report revealed that there was a difference of US$10,334.00 between fees collected and reported by managements for various customers such as DHL, FedEx and International Bank (IB) and fees confirmed paid by the customers, between the mentioned period.
Also, as revealed by the audit report, there were differences of US$339,086.19 and L$1,790,000.00 between the total of revenue deposited into Government of Liberia (GOL) account per Liberia Revenue Authority (LRA)’s confirmation and revenue required to be deposited per the revenue sharing agreement approved by the Legislature.
The GAC report additionally established that the ministry made payments for various transactions amounting to US$136,027.49 and L$4,514,044.00 without adequate supporting documentation, such as payment vouchers, transfer instructions to banks, copy of checks, cash invoices, delivery notes and/or job completion certificates and other relevant documents to authenticate the transactions.
“Management did not maintain payment vouchers along with the necessary supporting documentation for several payment transactions for goods/services in the amounts of
US$433,601.04 and (L$1,169,260.2) which emanated from MPT and processed/paid by MFDP
through the IFMIS.
“Management did not maintain all the necessary documentation such as copies of revenue collection receipts, cash book, detail ledgers, monthly/quarterly reports, etc. to authenticate revenue generated for the period,” the GAC report revealed.
Additionally, the GAC audit established that there were several irregularities associated with payroll and personnel management for the period, including lack of comprehensive personnel listing (personnel listing did not contain key information for staff), personnel retired and pensioned without reaching the retirement age or years of service, inadequate information on personnel file (staff files did not contain employment letter and Personnel Action Notice -PAN), non-maintenance of monthly payroll, non-maintenance of daily attendance and monthly timesheet for tracking and monitoring staff’s attendance.
Management spent an excess of US$790,131.91 of its approved budget for the fiscal period without evidence of a supplementary budget. There were differences of US$272,450.20 and (L$4,512,595.60) between the total of revenue deposited into the designated account for revenue per the bank statements and the total of revenue reported per the Annual Revenue Report… There were differences of US$339,086.19 and L$1,790,000.00 between the total of revenue deposited into GOL account per Liberia Revenue Authority (LRA)’s confirmation and revenue required to be deposited per the revenue sharing agreement approved by the Legislature.
Auditor General’s Report, 2016-2017
The audit report also discovered that there were several irregularities associated with Procurement Management for the period, including lack of functional Procurement Committee, non-compliance with procurement methods for purchases, lack of bid evaluation panel and report for several bid evaluation and selection processes carried out, and non-submission of quarterly/annual reports on procurement activities to PPCC for the fiscal period.
In response to the GAC, the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications clarified that the variances identified as per the audit finding was as result of other contributions that were deposited in the entity’s bank account for management operation or activities.
However, the GAC in its response said the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications’ assertion was not supported by documentary evidence. “There was no document attached as asserted by Management. Therefore, we maintain our findings and recommendations,” the GAC replied.
