Nothing cleared up

WITH ONLY weeks to go before the next budget, the impasse over a $2.6 billion misstatement in public account revenue remains unresolved. Most worryingly, questions relating to systems within the Central Bank have not been satisfactorily addressed.

Minister of Finance Colm Imbert’s remarks in Parliament on September 9 did not clear up the fog surrounding the Electronic Cheque Clearing System.

As a special report commissioned by his ministry from Auditor General Jaiwantie Ramdass was laid in the House, Mr Imbert seemed more concerned with what he deemed a “campaign of non-co-operation” from Ms Ramdass.

“Instead of confirming the $2.6 billion discrepancy had been resolved and that there was, in fact, no missing money, the Auditor General has avoided making any definitive statement,” the minister noted. He said the special report added fuel to the fire and deemed court filings by Ms Ramdass “emotionally charged” and “designed to evoke public sympathy.”

The minister was possibly projecting.

Far from being merely “caustic,” the issues canvassed in the new report involve valid questions which both the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank should urgently address.

For instance, it would be easier to accept Mr Imbert’s suggestion that nothing is amiss if there was some understanding as to why multiple reasons have been given for the cause of the billion-dollar error.

According to statements made by ministry officials to the Office of the Auditor General, the Central Bank experienced “a system malfunction which caused overstated debit advices to be generated.”

At the same time, officials said the “variance was due to posting errors, including double booking of transactions and decimal point transposition errors.”

Separately, another factor was advanced, namely: “electronic files presented on the GoAnyWhere platform did not differentiate the different tax types.”

And there was, it seems as well, “a processing error.”

All of this supplies much cause for an on-site examination of Central Bank systems.

Yet, bafflingly, a request for this was denied by Central Bank Governor Alvin Hilaire.

Facts disclosed by the minister – and not the governor – in Parliament this week suggested the issue was the lack of an authorisation letter from Ms Ramdass.

Still, Mr Imbert’s assurance that the Central Bank is “open and willing” to meet with Ms Ramdass was acknowledgement that there are, in fact, legitimate system issues for her to examine there, contrary to his overall characterisation of her reports.

Meanwhile, whatever caused the error occurred in February 2023, but was only detected in February 2024, according to the Finance Ministry.

If this is true, a billion-dollar misstatement remained undetected for a year notwithstanding the world-class systems of the ministry and the bank.

Something, to put it mildly, is not adding up.