In light of billions being unaccounted for and no internal auditor for the periods 2013 to 2015, a forensic audit is taking place in some units of the Estate Management and Business Development Company Ltd (EMBD).
Parliament’s Public Accounts Enterprise Committee (PAEC), which examined the audited financial statements of the EMBD for the years 2008 to 2010, also heard that in some cases contracts started off at millions but eventually ran into billions of dollars which the management of the company could not explain.
In one instance a $9 million contract escalated to $1.183 billion. That matter is currently before the court, the committee heard.
Financial audited reports for 2011 to 2015 were also not presented resulting in the committee’s chairman, Wade Mark, to admonished the EMBD members for its “unacceptable” behaviour in not submitting the reports.
Member Shamfa Cudjoe, who was vociferous in her concerns, said her challenge with the EMBD over the past nine years was that it had a “strong record of mismanagement,” adding that there were reports where a contract stared off at $67 million rose to $334 million.
“The practice in the EMBD is like so many other State enterprises....it is chronic. It is like a cancer. I read in the Hansad asking about the financial audits for 2013 and here we are in 2017 with a couple more years added to the same years we were asking about.
“So are we really a committee interrogating and looking out for the best interest of the country or are we playing committee? Sometimes it feels as if we are just meeting as a formality because if we meet three years after asking the same questions then this is a waste of time and public funds,” Cudjoe said.
Asked what oversight measures were in place to ensure transparency permanent secretary in the Agriculture Ministry, Angela Siew, said any additional monies due to variations to contracts must be Cabinet approved.
Pressed whether there was a Cabinet note permitting increases to these contracts Siew said, “No. I am saying this is what should have happened.”
She said variations would have to go through the budget division which would not approve of such increases without proper approvals.
But Cudjoe, who seemed unimpressed said, “Nobody in the whole line picked up that something was wrong. And if that is happening then what is happening now?”
Siew reiterated that variations must be Cabinet approved adding, “In any event even if we were trying to slip that in to go to finance ministry they would not accept it because there are no proper approvals.”
Regarding the failure to submit financial reports Siew said some were audited.
The company’s chairman, Shameer Mohammed, also the chairman of Caribbean Airlines Ltd, almost 90 percent of the work was completed on some of those reports.
Committee member, David Small, chastised the company and the Ministry of Agriculture for not having frequent meetings so as to determine the best way forward for the entity, as it was revealed that since its inception in 2002 the company had moved to three different ministries and was operating without a strategic plan.
There was only a “draft plan” which was never finalised.
