Ministry to improve schol recipient monitoring

WITH more than $13 million was lost from scholarship recipients who did not perform their obligatory service Auditor General Lorelly Pujadas said the Education Ministry has given a commitment to improve monitoring.

She was speaking Wednesday during a virtual Public Accounts Committee (PAC) meeting with the auditor general’s department and Finance Ministry officials on the auditor general’s report of the public accounts for 2019.

PAC member Adrian Leonce said the report found that a number of Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) scholarship recipients did not fulfil their obligatory service and have monies due to the State. He pointed out some of these cases took such a long time that they became statute barred.

“The Ministry of Education should ensure this does not happen.” The auditor general’s report stated that 163 scholars have been classified as statute barred (four years expired from the date of the action) and of that group financial information was received for 54 scholars or 33 per cent.

The debt in respect of these 54 scholars totalled $14,345,290.29 of which the sum of $717,954.69 was recovered. An amount of $13,666,928.14 remained outstanding to the State. The report said the indebtedness of the remaining 109 scholars could not be determined since documentation was not provided. “As a result, the actual indebtedness to the State by scholars who have been classified as statute barred could not be quantified.” The issue was previously reported on by Newsday. At the PAC meeting Pujadas said the Education Ministry needs to have a proper database tracking including where the scholarship recipients are and the time frames for their periods of study.

“There should be flag points alerting the ministry on (when) a scholar is close to completing.” She added that some students have not been making the grade and should not get further funding.

She explained that with flag points ministry officials can get in touch with students before the situation becomes statute barred. Pujadas also said that the ability to determine how many students had not returned and fulfilled their obligations was affected by files being waterlogged and damaged.

She said the ministry has acknowledged that things needed to be improved upon and were making attempts to move towards a database with more accurate information and improved monitoring systems.