The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

The Opposition’s deputy leader yesterday branded the Government’s assertion that it owes vendors some $109m in current accounts payables as “highly questionable”.

Chester Cooper, also the party’s shadow minister for finance, challenged the figures contained in the Government’s pre-election fiscal report on the basis that major ministries and agencies - which typically enjoy the largest contracting budgets - were shown as owing zero outstanding debts to suppliers.

Mr Cooper said: “The report indicates that the total outstanding arrears of the Government is $109m as at August 25, 2021. This is highly questionable. It is not within the realm of probability that the Ministry of Works and Department of Works have no outstanding payments to vendors.

“What about payments owed to contractors doing major work at C.W. Sawyer and S.C. McPherson for the Ministry of Education? What about pending contracts for other school repairs? Are we also to believe that only the Department of Corrections has employees owed funds due to reinstatement? What about the outstanding transfers to public corporations?

“Does the Water and Sewerage Corporation not owe Aqua Design half a million dollars? Are increments still not owed to public servants after payments have been frozen for two years? Has the Government rescheduled any principal payments? There is no mention of this is the report.”

The Government, in its pre-election fiscal report, said the accounts payable position changed on a daily basis as invoices requesting payment were received from suppliers and vendors. “Government accounts payables, which include unpaid invoices for government ministries and departments reported to the Ministry of Finance as at August 25, 2021, aggregated $108.8m,” the report said.

“The information on accounts payables represents the position at August 25, 2021. The accounts payable position changes daily as invoices are paid or submitted for settlement. The position as at the reporting date represents the equivalent of 3.4 percent of fiscal year 2020-2021’s total provisional expenditure and less than a half-month’s equivalent of average expenditure during the last fiscal year.”

Mr Cooper had previously criticised the Government for its lateness in publishing the pre-election economic and fiscal update. By law, namely the Fiscal Responsibility Act, it is supposed to be published between 20-30 days prior to a general election, which in this case is September 16. The report is dated August 27, which puts it at the latest possible date, but it was only publicly released on August 29, placing it outside these limits.

The PLP’s deputy leader added of the report’s contents: “Finally, the Government has disclosed it is in an arrangement with Goldman Sachs for additional borrowing. We are curious about the full terms of this arrangement, as well as the loan agreements with the IMF and World Bank as previously requested.

“While there are very serious questions arising from the document, we thank the Government for this report and are happy we were able to assist in promoting its delivery to the taxpayer.”