Auditor General's Report on the Public Accounts of Montserrat 2004

CHAPTER 3
3.0 MINISTRIES AND DEPARTMENTS
3.1 ADMINISTRATION
3.1.1 Over Expenditure
90. Once again over-expenditure is being recorded on recurrent
expenditure subheads managed by the Department of Administration. Lineitems
within the Governor’s Office, Administration Headquarters and
Prison’s budget are recording excess expenditure. These are recorded in the
Table below:
Vote Head Subhead Description Amount
02 020 210 Personal Emoluments 1,919
03 030 220 Travel Allowance 636
03 030 228 Supplies & Materials 406
03 031 210 Personal Emoluments 13,555
3.1.2 Capital Expenditure
91. Authorised capital expenditure for the fiscal year was $937,800.
Actual expenditure for the year amounted to $215,779 being a 23% of
allocation. One project estimated at $600,000 was included in the
estimates however it incurred no expenditure. It thus appears that the
project was included before relevant funding was sourced.
3.1.3 Passport Custody and Issuance
92. Departmental control procedures require that passport application
forms be checked by senior staff, in particular, by a Principal Assistant
Secretary. The documented procedures, although they were adequate, were
not always followed. For the fiscal year being reviewed no checks were
performed for 28% of the sample of passport application checks conducted.
This is in breach of departmental policy and provides an opportunity for
passports to be issued to clients who do not meet the application criteria.
93. The system for processing passports has recently changed from a
manual system to being computerized. Further checks will be conducted to
ensure that built-in controls are not being bypassed.
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