Fire Services’ $.5m Unipet purchase breached rules

WHY did the Fire Services purchase fuel from Unipet when NP is the approved supplier? This was a question asked on Wednesday during a virtual parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) meeting.

The Auditor General’s department and Finance Ministry officials discussed the Auditor General’s report of the public accounts for the financial year 2019.

PAC member Charrise Seepersad asked about a fleet management item which showed that Fire Services bought fuel from Unipet instead of NP. She asked if there was any formal agreement for the change.

The line item said, “documentary evidence of the authority for the Fire Services Division, Ministry of National Security to purchase fuel and lubricants totalling $541,647.58 from Unipet instead of the NP, the approved supplier, was not provided for audit examination.”

Auditor General Lorelly Pujadas said the issue being raised was that NP is the authorised entity, and this was a control breach in terms of directives.

She added that she was not aware whether fleet cards (issued by NP and encoded with the limit of a vehicle’s gas or maintenance budget) were used to buy the fuel, and that question would have to be raised with Fire Services.

Seepersad asked what was the basis for the change in supplier, whether there was any documentation and whether the change was approved by the National Security Ministry permanent secretary.

Pujadas replied that no documentation had been seen and her department had written to Fire Services on the issue. “Responses are yet to be received why this action was taken.” She said she would include Seepersad’s concerns in a follow-up management letter.