BELOW IS AN EXCERPT ABOUT CHOISEUL FROM THE FORENSIC REPORT ON THE OPERATIONS OF TOWN, VILLAGE AND CITY COUNCILS. TO SAY THE LEAST . . . IT IS DAMNING!!
34.
CHOISEUL
VILLAGE
COUNCIL
The Choiseul Village Council was established pursuant to the provisions
of the Local Authorities
Ordinance Chapter 239, Revised Laws
of St. Lucia,
1957 (repealed).
Section 6 (1) of the Local Authorities Ordinance, Chapter 239, Revised Laws of St. Lucia, 1957 (repealed) stipulates the following:
“The Governor
in Council may declare any area in the Colony to be an urban, village or rural district for the purposes
of this Ordinance
and may define the boundaries of such district and also of any district created by this Ordinance
and may alter, restrict,
or enlarge the same”.
As mentioned
elsewhere in the report, in keeping with Section 6 (1) of the Ordinance (reference page 67) the
following communities
fell within the boundaries of
the Choiseul Village Council:
a. La Pointe, Delcer, Industry, Franciou, Jacobie, Ravineau, Bois D’inde, Esperance West,
Fiette West, Myers
Bridge,
Derriere Morne West, Anse L’ Ivrogne, Deville
Estate;
b. Anse John, Fiette East, Portalese, Mongouge, Morne Sion, Libereaux, Martin, Ponyon, New
Field, Victoria, Esperance East,
Derriere Morne East;
c. Le Riche,
Savanne George, Choiseul Village, Reunion, La Fargue;
d. Belle Vue, Morne
Jacques, Des Randeaux, Dacretin, Manana,
Victoria, Mailly;
e. Motete, Mondesir,
Roblot, Dupre, La Maze, River
Doree, Debreuil, Monzie;
f. Sauzay,
Cafeiere, Capognotte,
Dugard, Dacretin;
g. La Perle, Londonderry, Gertrine, Giraud, Beausoliel, Beausejour;
h. Mont Lezard, Parc
Estate,
Saltibus, Daban, Gaya
Bois, Warwick,
Grande
Magazin, Belvedere East;
i. Piaye, Balembouche, Balca,
Bongale.
The Review revealed some very significant findings in relation to the Choiseul Village Council. Details
of these findings are outlined below.
GENERAL FINDINGS
i.
Account Opened Without Proper Approval
We noticed that Council opened and operated an account (A/C no. 090669) at the Choiseul Cooperative
Credit Union from April 2009. There is no evidence to show that Council received
the approval of the Accountant
General
to open and operated
the account at
the
Credit Union.
It was observed that Council used that account to deposit funds ($100,000.00) given by
Central Government under the Easter Economic Stimulus Programme in April 2009. It must be noted
that the Accountant General had opened a
bank account at Bank of St. Lucia for the Choiseul Village
Council in February 2008, for the purposes of depositing funds received from Central Government.
Despite the existence of the BOSL
account, Council chose to open the said account
at the Credit
Union, in which was deposited the $100,000.00 (see Exhibit 56).
ii.
Bank Account into Overdraft
Regulation
114 of the Financial
Regulations – Section
54, Finance (Administration) Act,
Revised
Laws
of St. Lucia,
2005 states as follows:
“No accounting officer may overdraw a bank account operated
by him or her.”
It was duly noted that the Bank of St. Lucia account
went into overdraft on the 23rd
of May 2008
up until the 13th May 2009 to the tune of $765.00.
In
fact Council, Ministry of Local Government
and
Accountant General’s Department were not
even aware
that the bank account went into
overdraft, simply because they were not monitoring and doing the necessary bank reconciliations.
This
is a
serious violation
of the Financial Regulations and
the respective parties
must
ensure that the situation does
not repeat itself.
iii.
Collections Not Paid-in on Time
Regulation
129 of the Financial
Regulations – Section
54, Finance (Administration) Act,
Revised
Laws
of St. Lucia,
2005 stipulates the following:
(1) Any
cash held in excess of
daily requirements shall be lodged in a commercial bank;
(2) Where banking facilities are not available, any cash held in excess of daily requirement
shall
be secured in a strong room or safe.”
We noticed that Council did not pay
monies collected to the Sub Accountant
for Soufriere/Choiseul
on a daily basis because the Sub Accountant visited Choiseul
only twice per
week, Tuesdays
and
Fridays.
Therefore we enquired of the Clerk of Council as to the mechanism used to keep monies collected
safe when the Sub Accountant has not visited. The Clerk of Council indicated monies collected on
the days the Sub Accountant is absent are
paid into her credit union account and would be
withdrawn on days
that the sub-collector would
be in office.
This practice is totally
unacceptable as it opens collections of the Council to significant risk of embezzlement. Further, the Council faces risk of loss if Clerk of Council was to depart the Council before these monies are withdrawn from
her
credit union account.
If there is real need for Council to have an account
at
the Credit Union for the purpose of securing monies in the absence of the Sub Accountant,
Council should make a request to the Accountant
General’s
Department
through the Ministry of the
Local Government.
iv.
Council Records
According to the Job Description of Clerks of Town/Village Council, one of the duties/tasks of the
Clerk is to ensure that the records of all transactions are properly secured and kept and shall make all such documents
available for inspection by authorised persons. He/she shall keep all other records as may be required by Council or the Ministry. Financial Regulation 156 (reference page
27) also places these responsibilities
on Clerk of Council
On the 6th March, 2012, used cheque books were requested from the Clerk. Clerk indicated that she
did not have all the cheque books because they
were in the possession of the Former District
Representative, Rufus Bousquet.
She indicated and we quote: “He
came with someone who appeared to be from the Taiwanese
Embassy and he indicated that he needed the cashbook and cheque books to reconcile his accounts” (see Exhibit 57).
After the incident, we requested from the
Clerk of Council other documents in relation to procurement of construction services to substantiate the several enormous
disbursements that were made
from the bank account of Council. We were once more directed to the Former Parliamentary Representative, Rufus Bousquet. However, several requests to Mr Bousquet by the Council (Clerk)
and
the Ministry of Local Government to release the necessary documents proved futile (see Exhibit 58).
Further, we made enquiries at the Office of the new Parliamentary Representative, Lorne Theophilus, to establish whether Former Parliamentary Representative, Rufus Bousquet handed over any documents
in relation to the procurement of constructions services for the Constituency of Choiseul. The Office of the new Parliamentary Representative, Lorne Theophilus has confirmed that
Former Parliamentary
Representative, Rufus Bousquet did not hand over any
documents whatsoever when he demitted
office.
We are of the view that this practice by
Former Parliamentary Representative, Rufus Bousquet is
a fundamental breach of
Sections 30 and 33 of the Constitution of
St.
Lucia. Whereas the location and the individual in the Office of Parliamentary Representative
may change from time to time, the
constitutional office of Parliamentary Representative for the Choiseul
Constituency is a going-
concern and
will remain a going-concern.
Consequently all documentation in relation to completed or on-going projects and initiatives for the Constituency of Choiseul
has to be passed from the former holder-of-office to current holder-
of-office. Further,
it was irresponsible
of Clerk of Council, Williana St Rose to
have given possession of these documents
to the Former Parliamentary Representative.
v.
Procurement at council
Under Regulation 11 (1) of the Procurement and Stores Regulations – Section 54, Finance (Administration) Act, Chapter
15.01, Revised Laws of St. Lucia, 2005 the Minister for
Finance appointed a Central
Tenders Board to evaluate
tenders for procurement
of goods and services and
sale of public goods.
Further, under Regulation 16 (1) of the Procurement and Stores Regulations, the Director of Finance appointed a Departmental Tenders Board to perform the functions of
the Central Tenders Board in cases
where “the value of
goods and services does
not exceed $100,000.00.
Further still, Regulation 26 (1) of the Procurement and Stores Regulations – Section 54, Finance
(Administration)
Act, Chapter 15.01, Revised Laws of St. Lucia,
2005 stipulated the following:
Works or services not exceeding $20,000 in value, or such greater amount as the Director of Finance and Planning determines,
may be authorised by works
orders signed by any officer authorised to do so by the accounting officer, without
the
execution of a written contract.
It is noted that at the time of the Review the Director of Finance had raised the amount to $40,000.00.
We requested from Clerk of Council contracts, works orders and payment certificates in relation
to works projects that were paid from the Council’s bank account for the period under review.
Clerk of Council indicated that she was only
in possession of a few works orders. She indicated that all contracts, works orders and payment certificates were issued from the Office of
Parliamentary Representative.
We examined the few works orders and payment certificates that were made available by Clerk of
Council. It was observed that within the Office of Parliamentary Representative there was a Works
Division which managed all contracts, work
orders and payment certificates and
Parliamentary
Representative, Rufus Bousquet acted as Quantity
Surveyor and Authorising Officer on all the
contracts, works orders and payment certificates (see Exhibits 59, 60 and 61).
Further, it was noticed that Former Parliamentary Representative, Rufus Bousquet, sent a request to
Clerk of Council, Williana St. Rose, to pay Sylvester Regis the sum of $20,820.00
for purported
repairs to the Fiette Road. The request from the Parliamentary Representative was dated 26th November, 2011, a non-working day
and
two (2) days before the General Elections of 2011.
However, the cheque (BOSL no.000334) that was prepared and issued to Sylvester Regis was
dated 25th November,
2011.
This makes it clear that Clerk of Council backdated the cheque to give the impression that payment
was
issued on the last working day before the General Elections of 28th November, 2011. Further, we
also noted that the said
cheque was only presented
to the Bank on 12th December,
2011.
It must be noted also that Sylvester
Regis received the biggest share
of works contracts. He
received
contracts to the value of
$402,330.00.
The
above is a clear example
of a circumstance where a Clerk of Council allowed herself to be used by a Parliamentary Representative for the purpose of manipulating the procurement process in the Constituency (see Exhibits 59 and 62).
vi.
Payments Not Accounted For
Under Section 2 – Definitions, Finance (Administration) Act,
Chapter 15.01, Revised Laws
of St. Lucia,
2005 an “accountable officer” and a “public officer” are described
respectively as follows:
“a public officer or accounting officer concerned in or responsible for the
collection,
receipts,
custody,
issues
or
payment
of
public monies,
stores, stamps, investments, securities, or
negotiable instruments, whether the
property of the Government or on deposit with or entrusted to the Government
or to
any public officer in his or her official
capacity either alone or jointly with
any other public officer or any other person”
“a person
holding or acting in any public
office”
There were hundreds of payments made by the Council for works projects but the only
documentation available for verification were documents
in connection with payments
made from funds derived from Central Government subventions. Documentation in connection with payments made from funds derived from Taiwanese grants was not available at the Council’s office for
verification.
Clerk of
Council (Mrs St.Rose) indicated that documentation in connection with payments made
from funds derived from Taiwanese grants was managed by
the Office of Parliamentary
Representative. According
to the Clerk of Council, when payments were to be made, the Former
District Representative
would send her the various work orders and contracts for payments, she
would then write the cheques and return all documents and the cheques to the District
Representatives office.
As
a consequence,
we were unable to ascertain whether payments
made from the bank account of Council for works
projects were made to
the
correct suppliers and
in the correct amounts.
vii. Easter Economic Stimulus Package
We noticed that Central Government issued an amount of $100,000.00 to Council under the Easter
Economic Stimulus Programme, April 2009. Council deposited
the funds into an account that was opened at the Choiseul
Cooperative Credit Union without the approval of the Accountant General.
According
to the “Application for Deposit Account” form, there were three signatories to the
account and these were as follows:
Elmira Joseph
- Chairperson of
Council Williana St Rose - Clerk
of Council
Henson Samuel -
Member of Council
In addition, it is longstanding practice and the policy
of the Ministry of Local Government, that two
signatories were needed on all disbursement vouchers/cheques, with Clerk of Council being
the compulsory signatory.
An examination of relevant disbursement vouchers submitted by the Credit Union revealed that only
the signature of Clerk of Council appeared on the disbursement vouchers which the Credit
Union used as its authority
to debit the account.
Further, there were two amounts totalling
$6,000.00 (2,883.78 + 3,116.22) that were disbursed from the account and transferred to another account at the Credit Union (A/C # 890) on 15th April, 2009. We saw
no authorisation from
Council for these debits to the account.
In addition, according to documentation from Council all the funds were disbursed for works and
activities in connection with “Choiseul
Beautification Programme” and the Supervisor for all works under the Programme was Griffith Jn Baptiste. There was no evidence that Griffith Jn Baptiste was a member or employee of Council. Investigations revealed that Griffith Jn Baptiste was a member of the UWP Choiseul Constituency
Group. Further, there is no evidence that
Council sanctioned the works contracts that were issued to the various contractors under the
Programme neither did Chairperson of
Council countersigned the payment request as required by
the Section 30 of the Local
Authorities Ordinance, Chapter 239,
Revised Laws of St. Lucia, 1957
(repealed).
Further still, the
documentation revealed that
one of the contractors under the
Programme
was Dedan Jn Baptiste. In fact the
documentation revealed that works for that
contractor was
supervised and certified by Griffith Jn Baptiste and the said Contractor was paid an amount $28,000.00. Investigations revealed that Contractor, Dedan Jn Baptiste and Supervisor, Griffith Jn
Baptiste was one and the same person (Griffith Dedan Christiani Jn Baptiste – N.I
no. 122008) (see Exhibit 63).
TAIWANESE,
MOROCCAN AN OTHER FUNDS
i. Value for Money –
Procurement
a. Works
Project
As alluded to elsewhere in this report, accounting officers or officers duly
authorised to sign or
authorise payment instruments have a most important responsibility
to ensure accuracy of every detail in the said payment instrument before the payment instrument is approved, under the provisions of Financial Regulation
72 (refer to page 53).
With the assistance of a qualified quantity surveyor from the Ministry
of Physical Development, Housing and Urban Renewal, we conducted a physical examination and cost estimation
exercise
on works projects executed in the Constituency by Council for the period under review. The
exercise revealed some significant differences between “estimated cost” and “amount
paid” pointing to
wastage and possible
fraud
and
embezzlement.
The instances
of significant
difference are outlined
in the table below:
Project Name
|
Name of
Contractor
|
Estimated
Cost
|
Amount
Paid
|
Difference
|
Concrete Section of
Compoyettee Road
|
Constance
Charles
|
Could not locate
|
$22,263.00
|
$22,263.00
|
Road Rehab –
Lower
Delcer
|
Enthia St.Brice
|
$3,405.00
|
$15,050.00
|
$11,645.00
|
Community Road & Bridge at Delcer
|
Jimmy Haynes
|
$15,564.00
|
$32,000.00
|
$16,436.00
|
Kerb & Slipper Drain –
Mongouge West
|
Smith
Peter
|
Could not locate
|
$12,400.00
|
$12,400.00
|
Footpath at Da Bans/La
Maze
|
Peter Phillip
|
$8,446.00
|
$23,300.00
|
$14,854.00
|
Concrete Road at Dierre
Morne
|
Sylvester Regis
|
$40,490.76
|
$55,000.00
|
$14,509.44
|
Drains and
Culverts at
Ravineau
|
Sylvester Regis
|
Could not locate
|
$38,320.00
|
$38,320.00
|
Retaining Wall
and
Drain at Sauzay
|
Valeria
Herman
|
Could not locate
|
$35,000.00
|
$35,000.00
|
Infrastructural Works on
Jetrine Playing Field
|
Wally St.Juste
|
$36,443.00
|
$45,000.00
|
$8,557.00
|
Drain
& Slips at La Perle
|
Wally St.Juste
|
$6,461.00
|
$39,000.00
|
$32,539.00
|
Road Rehab – Gravel
|
Enthia Brice
|
$3,405.00
|
$15,050.00
|
$11,645.00
|
Total
|
b. Conflict of Interest – Bryan Charles
We noticed that Council issued a number of contracts to Bryan Charles during the time he served as the Deputy Chairman of the Council. We can confirm that he was paid a total amount of
$33,008.03
during the period. This is a violation of the
principle, that Members
of Council should not use
their power and influence on
Councils to further their
personal interest.
ii.
Alleged Misappropriation of Moroccan Funds
The
Choiseul Village Council received via wire transfer on the 5th October 2010, from the
Morocco government the sum of Eight Hundred and Six Thousand, Three Hundred and Seventy Eight Dollars and Thirty Eight Cents ($806,378.38) for the purpose of constructing a mini stadium at La Fargue. These monies were deposited
in BOSL Account No.901215802, the same account in which funds from the Taiwanese Government was
deposited.
According
to records at the Council and further confirmation
by Clerk of Council, a total amount
of forty-four thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars ($44,750.00) has already
been spent for
topographic survey, architectural, civil and structural engineering fees. Consequently, there should be a balance of Seven Hundred and Sixty-one Thousand, Six Hundred and Twenty-eight Dollars and
Thirty-eight Cents
($761,628.38) of Moroccan Funds on the bank account.
It was duly noted
that the balance on the said bank account as at 31st December 2011 was only five hundred and fifty-nine thousand, four hundred and ninety-six dollars and four
cents
($559,496.04). If the balance is only Moroccan funds there is a difference of two hundred and two
thousand one hundred and thirty-two dollars and thirty-four
cents ($202,132.34).
This shows that an amount of
two hundred and two thousand one hundred and thirty-two dollars
and
thirty-four cents ($202,132.34) was spent from the Morocco funds for
purposes other than “Construction
of the Mini Stadium at La Fargue”.
This discrepancy
will affect the future implementation
of the project as funds will have to come from
other
sources
to enable successful implementation.
iii.
Failure to Account for Foreign Currency Grants
Regulation 48 of the Financial Regulations – Section 54, Finance (Administration) Act, Revised
Laws
of St. Lucia,
2005 stipulates the following:
Whenever an officer or a person other than
the Accountant General, a
sub-
accountant or a collector of revenue receives public money
he or she shall as soon as possible pay it to the Accountant General or a sub-accountant or a
collector of
revenue and obtain
a receipt for it.
According to records at the Council and confirmed by Clerk-of-Council, Council received the
following amounts from Former Parliamentary Representative, Rufus Bousquet, in the form of
foreign-currency cheques during 2011:
Date
|
Name of Drawer
|
Cheque No.
|
Amount
|
20/01/2011
|
United
Nations
Federal Credit Union
|
1036292
|
$US
10,000.00
|
11/02/2011
|
United
Nations
Federal Credit Union
|
1037086
|
$US
10,000.00
|
19/04/2011
|
United
Nations
Federal Credit Union
|
1039359
|
$US
7,500.00
|
14/06/2011
|
Consulate General of
the
Republic of
Kosovo
in New York
|
Credit Transfer
(18978)
|
$US
28,000.00
|
Total
|
$US
55,500.00
|
When we interviewed Clerk of
Council on that matter,
she explained that all the foreign currency
cheques were received and deposited
in the BOSL bank account (# 901215802)
by Former Parliamentary Representative and Former Minister of External Affairs, Rufus Bousquet. She was
only informed of receipt of the funds by
the Former Parliamentary Representative
and that the Former
Parliamentary Representative never revealed
the source of the funds
to her.
However, examination of electronic copies of relevant deposit slips submitted by
BOSL
revealed that US cheques 1036292, 1037086, 1039359 and 18978 were deposited by
Clerk of Council, Williana St Rose and not Former Parliamentary
Representative and Former Minister of External
Affairs,
Rufus Bousquet.
We examined relevant bank statements to ensure
that these funds were indeed deposited in the said
bank account.
We were able to trace all the foreign currency cheque deposits in the bank account
except cheque no.18978
dated 28/06/2011 for $US28,000.00. However, we noticed a credit was made
to the account
in the form of a “credit advice” on 12/09/2011. The “credit advice” was in the
amount of $75,219.60,
$50.00 (bank charges) below the Eastern Caribbean Dollar equivalent of $US28,000.00. We note that
proceeds of the said cheque was credited to the Council’s bank account, seventy-three (73) days after the foreign currency cheque was reported to have been received.
These foreign currency
cheques were never paid into the Accountant General as required by
the Financial Regulations and all the amounts mentioned above were fully
disbursed as part of total
disbursements made from the bank account of the Council for the period. In addition, the source
of the funds as it pertains to the cheques from the United Nations Federal Credit Union is
still remains unknown.
The
above is a clear violation of Financial Regulations 48 and poises serious questions about the integrity of
source of funds.
No comments:
Post a Comment