External auditor holding up resolution of CEPEP missing records

CHAIRMAN of the Community Based Environmental Protection and Enhancement Programme (CEPEP), Ashton Ford said the company is running out of time to resolve the issue of missing expenditure records which were lost due to a computer crash in 2013.

He said the Joint Select Committee of the Parliament has given them one year in which to resolve this issue but the external auditor is not cooperating with them. He said although the computer crashed, there are ways to retrieve the data.

“The information can be retrieved. We want to verify the accounts. The JSC gave us instructions and we have to report to the committee within one year. That year would be up this month. So far, we have difficulty in resolving the situation because the external auditor is very hostile and we have no way to compel him to cooperate.”

He said the company would honour its commitment to its clients, but neither he nor the general manager can sign off on unaudited accounts before it goes to the Parliament.

“CEPEP is supposed to bring the audited accounts to the Parliament. Before it goes to the Parliament, the GM and I have to sign off on it. My contention is they have nothing for us to sign off on because the auditor is not carrying out his duty to bring this up to date.

Ford said contrary to statements by Opposition MP Dr Roodal Moonilal, he has not misled the country about missing files. Moonilal dismissed Ford’s revelation that the expenditure records for the period 2013 to 2015 is missing as, “a known PNM trick” to get away from honouring claims to contractors.

Ford said proof that the files are lost is contained in a letter CEPEP general manager Keith Eddy in response to recommendations made to CEPEP company, sent to Keiba Jacob, secretary of the Public Accounts (Enterprise) Committee (PAC).

In the document Eddy points out, “CCL’s previous financial history was lost due to a server crash in 2013. This extensive system crash severely impacted on the operations of the Finance Department, as the loss of data and lack of usability of the system reduces our ability to retrace data necessary for report generation.” It further states, “In addition to the loss of information of the accounting software, there also appears to be no other management financial reports stored on the Finance shared drive for that period. As such, reconciliations necessary to deduce the issue surrounding the variances between the Disagreement of Subledger and GL Accounts Payable cannot be performed at this time.” Ford said the information which related to the company’s expenses, including payment to contractors and staff for the period, amounted to $1.5 billion.

“Is not that we don’t want to pay contractors, it is because there are problems. The accounts cannot be verified because they have been lost. It can be retrieved but the auditor is not helping to recover the information.”