The Tribune

By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

AUDITOR General Terrance Bastian questioned $1m that was earmarked in the 2013/2014 budget to be allocated to Urban Agriculture, a backyard farming and community gardens initiative, which was never implemented and the funds redirected.

A co-ordinator for agriculture was also contracted for a three-year period to manage the project.

Mr Bastian, in his audit of Urban Renewal 2.0 obtained by The Tribune, said a government official advised that the funding for the project had been approved in the budget for the Office of the Prime Minister.

However, the report recommended that the auditors be provided with the implementation date for Urban Agriculture.

The auditors ranked the project as a “high risk” initiative, which needs management’s attention and the implementation of required safeguards.

“The government earmarked $1m for the 2013/2014 budget for Urban Agriculture which was for the implementation of backyard farming and community gardens,” the report said. “A co-ordinator for agriculture was contracted for a three-year period to manage this project. The auditors learnt that this project was not implemented and funding was redirected (high risk).”

The report further noted that nearly $500,000 was spent on a fleet of 19 vehicles for Urban Renewal that “were not periodically serviced neither was a maintenance schedule kept”.

“Cabinet gave approval for the acquisition of 16 2012 Nissan Versa from Sanpin Motors at a cost of $413,191.18 for the Urban Renewal Operations Directorate,” the report said. “Additionally, three 2012 Nissan Versa were purchased in November 2012 at a cost of $75,740.82. Total cost of the 19 vehicles was $488,932.

“We noted that while the latter purchase included three vehicles, two vehicles were assigned to the co-chairs of Urban Renewal (Cynthia “Mother” Pratt and Algernon Allen). No information was reviewed on file on the assignment of the third vehicle.”

The audit said the deputy director of Urban Renewal later advised that the third vehicle was assigned to a police superintendant.

The report said that after reviewing Urban Renewal’s vehicle assignment, it was noted that the listing was updated in November 2014 and there was a fleet of 22 cars.

“We further noted the differences between the listing and the information on file,” the report said.

The report added that the auditor seeks additional information on 11 cars.

Of that number, four cars were considered “condemned” with no board survey on file.

The auditors recommended that the Urban Renewal 2.0 vehicle listing be maintained to assist with the auditing process.

Fuel distribution records were also a point of deficiency, the auditor’s report said.

“The gas issuance register was recently instituted on July 31, 2014, and officers did not always return copies of the gas receipt issued by officers from the Ministry of Works and Urban Development.

“As a result, the auditors were unable to reconcile the fuel distributions due to these deficiencies. We further noted that no appropriation transfer warrants were issued by the Commission to cover the fuel consumption for the period July 2011 to October 2014,” the report said.