| …Keith Burrowes named as headGovernment has established a Commission of Inquiry into the affairs of the Mayor and City Council of Georgetown following a damning report by the Auditor General.Heading the Commission will be Keith Burrowes, an economist,Cheap Jerseys From China, who would be supported by a panel of six persons, also appointed to assist the Commissioner in the discharge of his duties.The panel is made up of city councillors, a Trade Unionist and a representative each from the Local Government and Finance Ministries, a government statement said yesterday.Minister of Local Government and Regional Development, Kellawan Lall, ordered the Commission of Inquiry to be established on July 21, 2008 under section 307 of the Municipal and District Act.Burrowes will be responsible for pursuing reports of the Auditor General on the municipality, obtaining the assistance of knowledgeable persons in conducting the inquiry, and to look into irregularities identified in the report of the Municipal Administration in Georgetown.He is also responsible for making recommendations to the Minister on all matters enquired into and to pronounce on the culpability of the Town Clerk and the City Treasurer.The public inquiry will be held at City Hall and councillors, staff members,Cheap Jerseys For Sale, labourers, proprietors, market and other stallholders, tenants in city dwellings, other residents in Georgetown, and contractors, will have opportunities to give evidence.In January,Wholesale Hockey Jerseys Canada, Mayor of Georgetown, Hamilton Green, had requested an audit of the City Treasurer’s Department.Following investigations, the report from the Auditor General disclosed that huge discrepancies were found in bank deposits giving indications of fraud.Town Clerk, Beulah Williams, and City Treasurer,Cheap Jerseys From China, Roderick Edinboro, were sent on administrative leave earlier this month following the release of the report.Salaries and wages records were improperly maintained, loans were unauthorized, and excessive amounts were being spent for software not functioning.Several officers were paid salaries in lieu of leave without proper authority or approval.Auditors also discovered that the contents of the bank reconciliation statements prepared were questionable and the present computerized system in operation was not properly implemented or functioning effectively.The salaries of two officers, the Accounts Supervisor and Rates Supervisor of the City Treasurer’s Department, were increased to the highest scale without approval because of their volume of work.These two officers also received retroactive payments going back five months with the approval of Town Clerk, Williams.The auditors also found that officers were receiving responsibility allowances for performing jobs even though they were on leave.Last year, it was noted that 122 salary advances for over $4.8 million were given to 82 officers with no applications being seen for 15 of them who received a total of $675,000.Senior officers received advances with greater frequency than others, with many getting as much as six for 2007.The Town Clerk approved advances for herself without seeking permission from the higher authority.Further, an examination of the salaries record did not indicate deductions were made for the advances of 27 officers who took almost $1.2 million.“Again this reflects that changes to the payroll can be made without the proper authority and in this case without any approval or documentation,” Auditor General, Deodat Sharma wrote in the report.In a cited case, one officer took an advance more than his salary yet took home more pay than his salary at the end of the month.During last year, too, 18 loans for over $1 million were issued to 17 officers with 12 of them for over $500,000 still outstanding as at December 2007.In one case, a loan was issued to Mayor Hamilton Green who subsequently denied he ever took one.Three officers were granted new loans in 2007 for $240,000 although they did not pay off loans taken in 2006.In respect to loans,Authentic NHL Gear Store, several officers were not making payments and the City Treasurer was unable to say why deductions were not being made although the loans were still outstanding.“This would also require someone making unauthorized changes to the payroll and removing the deductions that are required to be made from the officers. These unauthorized changes are again considered fraudulent.”According to the report, while the Mayor and City Council of Georgetown operated 10 bank accounts,Wholesale Authentic Jerseys, a check on the statements for the General Fund from January to December 2007 indicated that reconciliation statements were prepared for all 12 months but only December month was checked by the Accounts Manager.The City Treasurer had no idea whether all of the accounts are reconciled monthly nor could he say who checks the accuracy of the reconciliations.Further examinations of the accounts found that deposits were not made on a timely basis with on one occasion, over $77 million being deposited.“It is obvious that there are discrepancies with the General Fund bank account of the Council.”Additionally, the report said, there were huge discrepancies with deposits.An examination of the cash book for the General Fund bank account for June and September 2007 revealed that amounts totaling $106 million and $79 million were received but only $73 million and $52 million were deposited.“This clearly indicates that monies are not being banked promptly…and there exists no proper supervision or guidance for the staff preparing the reconciliations and maintaining the records for the account.”There were indications that the automated system used to record rates and taxes for residents were not tallying with the manual system of cards used before and no proper explanation was given, the report claimed. |
