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Administrator General gets failing grade from Auditor General

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Department only able to close 19 per cent of the case files over a four year period

KINGSTON, Jamaica — Auditor General Pamela Monroe Ellis has accused the Administrator General’s Department (AGD) of failing to ensure strict adherence to the Administrator General’s Act, in carrying out its duties.In her 2012/13 report tabled in Parliament last Tuesday, the Auditor General suggested that in order to strictly observe the provisions of the Act, the AGD needs to keep complete and accurate accounting of all transactions with respect to estates and trusts vested in or administered by that government department.She said that her office has been encouraging the AGD to consummate the proposed acquisition and implementation of the trust and estate management software (TEMS), as soon as possible. Additionally, she said, the management of the department should aggressively pursue delinquent tenants to collect outstanding rent, while devising strategies to alleviate vandalism and squatting on the related properties.The position of the Auditor General was influenced by her department’s 2012/13 audit of the Administrator General’s Department, which revealed a number of flaws including:As at May 2013, the AGD was administering approximately 8,000 estates, of which 4,332 (54 per cent), valued at approximately $405 million, were categorised as backlog. “These 4,332 estates comprised of cases dated between 20 to 70 years after the death of the estate owners,” the Auditor General explained.She also pointed out that, while the AGD implemented a project in 2009, to reduce the number of backlog cases, over the four-year period, 2009 to May 2013, the department was only able to close 1,075, or 19 per cent of the case files.“At the current average rate of 864 backlog cases per year, it may take AGD at least five years to clear the existing backlog,” she commented.The Auditor General also found problems with arrears in Estate and Trust Accounts and delayed payments to beneficiaries. She noted that the AGD is in breach of the Administrator General’s Act, by not updating estates’ records on a timely basis.“As at September 4, 2013, 945 estate accounts were in arrears for periods of up to three years. We found that AGD’s inability to locate related ledger cards and the volume of transactions being processed manually, contributed to the delays in updating the estate accounts,” she stated.She added that this will impede the department’s ability to determine the true value of each estate account in its portfolio at any given time.Like our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/jamaicaobserverFollow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/JamaicaObserver

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