Bosses of backlog
Auditor general highlights delinquent officers at municipal corporations with almost 100 outstanding financial statements
Published:Thursday | January 22, 2026 | 12:14 AMEdmond Campbell/Senior Staff Reporter -
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The spotlight has again been shone on the “responsible officers” at several municipal corporations as the state bodies remain delinquent, failing to submit a total of 95 outstanding financial statements to Auditor General Pamela Monroe Ellis. At...
The spotlight has again been shone on the “responsible officers” at several municipal corporations as the state bodies remain delinquent, failing to submit a total of 95 outstanding financial statements to Auditor General Pamela Monroe Ellis.
At the same time, financial statements from municipal corporations that have been reviewed by the auditor general have one thing in common – the absence of accounting records – resulting in the inability of the Government’s chief auditor to determine whether significant amounts spent represented bona fide transactions or balances.
In terms of a backlog of financial statements, the St Ann Municipal Corporation is in chronic delinquency with 15 outstanding statements spanning financial years 2010-2011 to 2024-2025.
Other municipalities that remain with significant backlogs are the Westmoreland Municipal Corporation with 11, St Thomas Municipal Corporation with 10, Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation and Clarendon Municipal Corporation having nine each, and the St Mary Municipal Corporation with eight.
When the auditor general examined the financial statements of the St Thomas Municipal Corporation for financial year 2012-2013, she did not obtain sufficient appropriate evidence to verify receivables amounting to $66.5 million; expenditure of $288 million; equity of $98.3 million; and liabilities of $54.9 million.
The management of the St Thomas Municipal Corporation indicated that they were unable to locate the relevant accounting records due to the lapse of time. As a result of this, Monroe Ellis said she was unable to perform key audit procedures to determine whether the amounts represent authentic transactions and balances.
The auditor general encountered similar challenges at the St Mary Municipal Corporation when she audited financial statements for the 2015-2016 financial year.
According to Monroe Ellis, the management of the St Mary Municipal Corporation failed to provide sufficient appropriate evidence to support cash and cash equivalents of $73.9 million; receivables in the sum of $32.2 million; liabilities amounting to $98.6 million; staff costs of a little more than $190.7 million; and reserves totalling $65,783,736.
Management reported that they were unable to locate the relevant accounting records due to the lapse of time.
Turning to the Hanover Municipal Corporation, the auditor general said she could not express an opinion on financial statements for the 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 fiscal years, owing to the pervasive absence of sufficient appropriate evidence to support transactions and account balances.
Management reported that they were unable to locate some of the accounting records due to the passage of time and an information technology (IT) system failure that occurred in December 2022, which resulted in the loss of accounting information for the periods under review.
Notwithstanding a previous failure in its IT system, resulting in the loss of accounting information, Monroe Ellis said management has not yet implemented the relevant policies and procedures governing areas such as disaster recovery and business continuity, IT security, access controls, and change management in order to reduce the risk of further loss.
She said management subsequently advised that a draft ICT (information and communications technology) policy has been developed and is being finalised with input from the parent ministry.
The audit of financial statements for financial years spanning 2009 to 2013 revealed weaknesses in the controls over cash and cash equivalents, receivables, liabilities, revenue and expenditure.
Management was advised to strengthen the relevant controls to ensure that all transactions and account balances are adequately supported, appropriately recorded and disclosed in accordance with the applicable financial reporting framework.
The Portmore City Municipality has also reported losses of accounting records, resulting in the auditor general not being able to express an opinion on the 2017-2018 financial statements.