By Lynford Simpson, Parliamentary Reporter
PARLIAMENT'S PUBLIC Accounts Committee (PAC) was told last week Tuesday that a senior officer at the Customs department was paid $782,442 for overtime work done between January and December 2000.
Under questioning from PAC chairman Audley Shaw, Allison Moore, Commissioner of Customs revealed that the officer in question was in charge of the unit in which the overtime work took place.
In his comments, Auditor-General Adrian Strachan said he had observed instances in which honoraria were paid to officers "contrary to the guidelines issued by Government". He also said the payment of honoraria to accounting staff at the Customs department "appeared to be an ongoing feature instead of the exceptional occurrence normally expected."
Ms Moore tried in vain to explain the circumstances under which the officer was paid so much for overtime work, with the PAC Chairman rightly pointing out that this was an uneconomical way of dealing with the problem.
The officer in question was sent on leave while the matter was investigated. A report was also sent to the Office of the Services Commission but investigations have not revealed any irregularities on the part of the officer.
That might be so but it certainly does not look proper that a senior officer, one in charge of a unit, who should see to it that the work gets done in the first place, is earning in overtime, what many hardworking public servants at the lower end of the salary scale are not paid in three years. The fact that nothing untoward was discovered simply means that such a situation is likely to continue, not just at Customs, but elsewhere in the civil service.
What does the Ministry of Finance plan to do to overcome this problem of blatant disregard for its procedures? It was that same "do as I please mentality" that led to the so-called Fat Cat salary scandal which rocked the Government a few years ago. At that time, the Boards of several departments and agencies saw it fit to set the level salary and perks they desired. The result was that some of our most senior civil servants were overpaid millions of dollars in some instances.
I have an uneasy feeling about whether the problem has been fixed, or whether it's just a matter of time before some similar scandal involving public funds emerges. This one might have to do with senior civil servants inflating their salaries by claiming for overtime work, legitimately or otherwise.
That one incident at Customs tells me the situation could recur not long from now. It is my view that the Ministry's guidelines are still being breached all over the place. What has given rise to this state of affairs? Are people of the view that the Government is not in a position (morally) to tell them what to do? Your guess is as good as mine.
While that senior officer who was not named paid himself more than three-quarters of a million for overtime work, it was only in the last two weeks that the Customs department handed over annual returns for the period 1997 to 2000. Those for 1996 and 2001 will not be filed before February 2003!
The Auditor-General again highlighted the fact that the failure of the department to hand over NHT, NIS, income tax and education tax for such long periods not only breached the relevant Act, but could "adversely affect employees' entitlements to benefits".
While Mr. Strachan's observations are true, they are nothing new. He has been saying the same thing for years and nobody has been paying any attention. The fact is that Government departments are strapped for cash so holding on to employees' benefits is one way of financing their operations until they receive the next cheque, which is usually short, from the Ministry of Finance. Even recently established departments like the regional health authorities have got in on the practice of holding on to employees benefits in order to get by.
In the Auditor-General's annual report for the period ending March 31, 2002, Mr. Strachan noted that the South East Regional Health Authority alone had failed to hand over $686.2 million in education tax and income tax which represent salary deductions for the period October 2000 to March 2002.
In January 2002 the PAC was told that despite efforts by the Finance Ministry to enforce compliance, several Government-run institutions continued to use statutory deductions for their own purposes instead of handing them over to the relevant agencies.
In justifying why the Jamaica Fire Brigade had failed to hand over $122.7 million between January 1999 and June 2000, Major H. George Benson, head of the Fire Brigade told the PAC last January that: "The money (from the Ministry of Finance) is not enough to pay salaries. Salaries are sometimes paid in three parts."
Pointing to the inescapables, Major Benson said: "Trucks have to run, gas has to be in the engines, tyres have to be bought. It's a vicious game. The money is not enough to pay over the statutory deductions and do the other things."
I'm no financial analyst, but I suggest the situation will get worse before it gets better. It has been rumoured for some time now that the Government has been struggling to pay salaries.
The situation is not helped with the recent admission from Dr. Omar Davies, Finance and Planning Minister, that the Government had gone about debt reduction the wrong way. This, after leading the country to believe that all was well in the months leading up to the October 2002 general election. The country was led to believe that the macro economic targets were being met. And, we were promised "no new taxes".
On Friday, the Government announced that it had pushed back by one year, its target for bringing down the country's debt to the level of national output. This is unlikely to be met as all promises of economic growth over more than 10 years have not been met.
Another startling admission at PAC last week, was the warning from the Finance and Planning Ministry that the failure by Government to pay its portion of the health scheme premium to which civil servants also contribute would destabilise the scheme. It said this could jeopardise the health benefits received by employees who have already paid their portion of the premium. The Ministry warned that this could lead to industrial unrest.
Such a warning from any Ministry or Government department in my estimation is highly unusual. Is it that the Ministry is aware of some economic fallout or some mass separation of workers from their jobs in the coming months in order to balance the Budget?
A move of that kind rather than Government refusing to hand over its portion
to a health scheme is more likely to trigger industrial unrest. The Government
has sought to assure us that this will not happen but can the Government be
taken at its word? We await the presentation of a Budget in April. Will there
be any more new taxes? If yes, we at least hope they are not excessive.
