Trudy Simpson and Tyrone Reid, Staff Reporters
Mayor of Kingston, Desmond Mckenzie (right); Lincoln Edwards (centre), acting town clerk; and Vernon McLeod, chairman of the finance committee at the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation examine the Corporation's financial statement during a media briefing at its downtown Kingston head office yesterday. - RUDOLPH BROWN/CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER
PARISH COUNCILS yesterday pledged to have all their statements up to date by March 2006, but admitted they are facing challenges which have rendered the timely submission of financial statements difficult.
"The executive recognises that there is much work to be done to bring the accounts of some councils up to date and all councils have committed to making their accounts current," said the Association of Local Government Associations (ALGA) after an emergency meeting with mayors yesterday.
Some parish council representatives told The Gleaner that their work was hampered by a litany of problems, including receiving documents late from central government. The Local Government Ministry provides them with receipts for bill payments and statutory deductions made on behalf of the parish councils.
"We were waiting for some documents from the Ministry so we can balance them with what's on our books," explained Jonathan Bartley, Mayor of Falmouth, Trelawny.
The Falmouth Mayor said his parish council received the receipts for 2004 at the end of March and therefore could not complete its submissions for the 2003/2004 financial year. "I think the council can manage it themselves and should not have to wait on the Ministry. We are of age. We can pay our bills and balance our books ourselves," he declared.
Parish councils are expected to submit statements to the Local Government Ministry and the Auditor General's Department at the end of each financial year. However, a probe by The Sunday Gleaner, using the Access to Information Act, revealed that the financial statements for various parish councils were woefully late, with the Ministry and the Auditor General's Department having statements for some councils covering only the years between 1999 and 2002.
Local Government Minister Portia Simpson Miller has ordered a probe into the St. Catherine Parish Council, the Portmore Municipal Council and the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation (KSAC).
'CALCULATED TO MISLEAD THE PUBLIC'
But yesterday the JLP labelled this move as "calculated to mislead the public", arguing that the KSAC and all parish councils are audited each year by the Auditor General. The party said that it is satisfied with performance of the Auditor General "in the conduct of his duties in auditing the parish councils".
Notwithstanding, ALGA pointed out that the non-implementation of accounting software is hampering the performance of parish councils. This should have started in 2000, with a pilot in Manchester, but which has yet to be completed. There were also complaints of inadequate numbers of computers and staff.
"All councils still use the manual system of accounting except Manchester which is just piloting the platinum accounting software," ALGA said, noting that other councils would benefit from their experience.
The parish councils said that not all their staff have the skills to carry out all accounting tasks. Those who do often have to be re-deployed to other tasks and therefore cannot always dedicate the time required to complete the statements on time.
The councils said they have to carry out many activities manually and cannot hire more persons as a result of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between public sector workers and the Government.
But according to ALGA, some councils have taken on additional staff to deal with the backlog. Some also said they have no evidence of impropriety in their financial records.
