The Audit Report of 2018 has found that the trend of over-payments continues unabated.
This time, the government has been flagged for overpaying some $166 Million of tax payer dollars on contracts.
According to the audit report, a number of Ministries, departments and regions were guilty of this practice.
For instance, various Ministries and departments overpaid contractors as much as $92.3 million.
The Ministry of Public Infrastructure, according to the report, accounted for $63.7 million.
Meanwhile, $73.7 million was overpaid by regional administrations. Regions 2, 8, 9 and 10 were responsible for 70 per cent of this sum.
There is some good news, however. Auditor General Deodat Sharma notes in the report that as of September 2019, $20 million was recovered.
This leaves sums of $146 million still outstanding.
The AG also experienced some difficulties in his audit, as some $800M in payment vouchers were not presented to his auditors.
The report states that this sum is equivalent to 582 vouchers. The Ministries of the Presidency and Natural Resources were among those responsible.
The AG notes that because of this, it could not be ascertained whether the money was used for the intended purposes.
