National Assembly |05 July 2023

Government had 152 suspense accounts as at end of June 2023

The Minister for Finance, National Planning and Trade, Naadir Hassan, has said that there were 152 suspense accounts at the end of June 2023, worth R409,925,228.63.

He was answering a Private Notice Question in the National Assembly yesterday morning brought by the leader of the oppostion, Hon. Sebastien Pillay, who wanted to know the number of such accounts as well as the amount in each account, and activities financed though those funds.

Minister Hassan explained there are two main categories of suspense accounts; namely one for specific projects and one for ‘trading and operating,’ for entities bringing in revenues such as the Seychelles Broadcasting Corporation (SBC) and the Seychelles Land Transport Authority (SLTA).

“Examples under specific project include renovation of the Belonie school, the remand centre and renovation of the judiciary building among others,” he explained.

“Since we do not have enough time to go over the accounts, I will share the list with the National Assembly,” he proposed.

The members nonetheless had several questions pertaining to the accounts, with the United Seychelles proportionately elected member, Hon. Wallace Cosgrow, questioning why it was taking the current administration so long to close the 152 accounts since they were against suspense accounts when they were in the opposition.

Comptroller General, Astrid Tamatave, who accompanied Minister Hassan in the National Assembly, said there has been a lot of exercise to close down the accounts and in 2020, they managed to close nine, followed by 52 in 2021 and 19 last year.

As to the total amount of money in those closed accounts, requested by US elected member for Anse Royale, Hon. Sylvane Lemiel, Ms Tamatave told the National Assembly that the nine accounts in 2020 were worth R65.9 million, the 52 suspense accounts in 2021 were worth R366.6 million and in 2022, the 19 accounts totalled R904.8 million.

When questioned on the number of suspense accounts opened since 2020, Ms Tamatave informed the National Assembly that she would provide the amount from the whole period 2020 to 2023 later. However she stated that for the year 2022, “we opened R143 million worth of suspense accounts”.

Also in the ministerial delegation was the deputy Comptroller, Jude Commettant.

Patsy Canaya