Auditor General’s report for 2016 - FPAC questions two entities on deficiencies highlighted in the report |06 April 2018
The chief executives of the SNPA and PMC during the hearing yesterday with the FPAC
The heads of two entities -- the Seychelles National Parks Authority (SNPA) and the Property Management Corporation (PMC) – appeared before the Finance and Public Accounts Committee (FPAC) of the National Assembly yesterday.
They were called in to explain certain deficiencies with regard to their entities that had been highlighted by the Auditor General in his 2016 report.
The SNPA and PMC were represented by their chief executives -- Selby Remie and Eveline Antat respectively.
The FPAC chair Wavel Ramkalawan explained that the FPAC is discharging its responsibility by reviewing the report of the Auditor General which was produced following the visit of the latter in different governmental departments.
“When he sees that there are certain deficiencies he includes it in the report which is then presented to the National Assembly where the finance committee takes a look at the report. Then the committee calls on the concerned party from the departments to find out why there are these deficiencies and then make recommendations,” he said.
He said that in cases where missing funds are involved, the committee refers the cases to other agencies to deal with.
Hon. Ramkalawan noted that they had expected two more agencies - the Seychelles Ports Authority (SPA) and the Electoral Commission of Seychelles (ECS) - to be present for the hearing but for reasons beyond their control they could not attend.
The FPAC deputy chair, Hon. Ahmed Afif, firstly directed the questions to Mr Remie and the officer responsible for accounts at the SNPA, Anderson Nourrice as SNPA has only submitted the 2011 and 2012 accounts whereas the accounts from 2013 to 2017 are not up-to-date.
“This inconsistency is not acceptable and we wish to see the accounts updated to at least the year 2016 and reviewed by the AG,” said Hon. Afif.
Mr Remie explained that they faced challenges with accounts in 2011 and 2012 as the system they were using collapsed and as there was no back up, it was difficult to retrieve the lost documents.
“At this moment we can continue with the rest of the accounts and rapidly update them but we had to go through the process of reconciliation for the 2011-2012 accounts,” he said.
He said another challenge was that in 2011 the government took back control of SNPA so the movement of certain funds was not properly classified.
Mr Remie made a commitment that the reports for each year will be handed in before the year ends as they are using a new database from the department of finance.
Another pertinent issue was the effectiveness of the mechanism being used to collect revenue by the SNPA which ensure the money reaches the government coffers as they receive a budget of over R20 million.
“I think everyone is aware of the limitations the SNPA faces to collect revenue as we rely on individuals to physically collect the money from boat owners and tourists. Through this method some people feel tempted to snatch a percentage of the revenue being collected,” said Mr Remie.
He said they have recently contacted a company to modernise their mode of revenue collection where they will set up an online system which is electronic which will oblige the clients entering the marine or national park to pay the fee before making use of the services.
“By using this system we will be plugging a huge gap which exists in the collection of revenue,” he said.
Mr Remie also felt that it would be ideal to review the fees being charged by SNPA to help increase government revenue.
The Auditor General, Gamini Herath, said the 2011 and 2012 accounts have already been certified two weeks ago but proposed the appointment of an independent auditor for the accounts of the following years.
He has written to the minister responsible for environment and the minister for finance about the need to appoint an auditor to clear the backlog for the five years.
“The state of the accounts for 2011 and 2012 were very bad... so I think there is a lot that you have to do to improve the quality of the accounts. There is also a backlog from 2013 to 2017 that will put pressure on my resources,” he said.
Ms Antat and Nelson Augustin, who is responsible for finance at the PMC, was questioned in regards to the deficiency in the monetary system where there were outstanding amounts from house buyers and tenants.
These arrears have been accumulating since 1975 and for 2017 alone there is R16 million overdue payments.
There are 714 arrears out of 1674 tenants and 318 arrears out of 3136 home buyers.
Hon. Afif said there is an absence of the ageing classification in the receivable system for those paying for their houses.
“When it comes to prioritising during audit for those who owe money for the longest period of time there are challenges and even for reconciliation,” he said.
Ms Antat explained that when PMC moved away from the Housing Finance Company (HFC) it inherited the system which already had many limitations.
“However, since late 2016 we have adopted a new system to address this situation where in February 2018 technicians from Space 95 started to install the new system while migrating our data... and we expect that before the end of this year everything will be in order and staff will be trained accordingly,” she said.
She noted that they are now discouraging cash payments from their clients as salary deduction is a preferable method.
Mr Augustin said legal action is taken up with most of the tenants who refuse to pay although it is a very long process and as that for those cases where the arrears cannot be reconciled the board takes a decision on case to case basis whether or not to write-off.
Ms Antat added that if the person comes forward to explain their case then the agency finds a way to deal with it but when they refuse to do so it becomes a problem.
“We are doing our best to sort out all the issues so that the amount of arrears is reduced,” she said.