The Auditor General has found weaknesses in the administration of the Municipal Social Assistance Programme (MSAP), which was designed to support individuals living below the poverty line.

The Local Government Ministry allocates funds from the Parochial Revenue Fund to the corporations to administer the programme.

It has four components: social housing, indigent housing, education grant, funeral grant, and administrative support.

In its report tabled in Parliament yesterday, the Auditor General said the weaknesses hindered transparency and accountability.

The report cited a history of noncompliance in submitting quarterly expenditure and progress reports.

According to the document, over the period 2017-18 to 2023-24, the Local Government Ministry allocated $1.53 billion to municipal corporations for MSAP.

However, the Auditor General said the municipal corporations did not faithfully submit the reports to the Ministry, which made it difficult for the Ministry to fully track the effectiveness of the programme between 2017-18 to 2023-24.

The Ministry did not prepare all the annual reports for the period to account for the $1.53 billion allocated.

Only three annual reports for 2018-19, 2020-21, and 2021-22 were provided.

The reports for 2020-21 and 2021-22 reflected expenditure totaling $144 million for only seven of the 14 municipal corporations, while the report for 2018-19 did not include any information on the project’s expenditure.

It’s reported that the Ministry has taken steps to improve reporting compliance.

On the matter of inaccuracies in MSAP expenditures, the report noted the Ministry and corporations provided information to account for the $1.53 billion allocated to MSAP, only after the adverse audit findings were presented in the draft report.

However, verification, coupled with the delayed information, raised concerns about the accuracy of the reported expenditure of $1.53 billion.

The Auditor General looked at four municipal corporations: St. Ann, Portmore, St. Catherine and Kingston and St. Andrew to verify expenditure.

It says during the verification process, the department uncovered significant variances in the reported expenditure.

Variances were identified at the St. Ann, Portmore and St. Catherine municipal corporations.

The St. Ann Municipal Corporation reported $26.6 million in expenditure for 2020-21 and 2022-23, but the department could only verify $18.2 million, resulting in an $8.4 million variance.

The reported expenditure of $6 million for 2023-24 contradicted the verified vouchers totaling $11.6 million.

Similarly, Portmore Municipal Corporation’s reported expenditure of $22 million, between April 2020 and March 2024, differed by $7.2 million from the verified vouchers totaling $29.2 million.

The St. Catherine Municipal Corporation also showed a substantial variance of $52 million, between reported expenditure of $125.5 million and verified vouchers amounting to $73.5 million.

At the Kingston and St. Andrew Municipal Corporation, the Auditor General’s department encountered issues verifying 239 vouchers valued at $13.3 million out of a sample of 1,263 vouchers totaling $150.6 million, due to missing documentation.

It said these discrepancies compromised the credibility and accuracy of the Ministry’s reported expenditure information, provided by the municipal corporations.

It also noted a discrepancy between the reported $1.561 billion allocated for MSAP and the Parochial Revenue Fund allocation disbursement recorded of $1.530 billion.

In light of the findings, the Auditor General said municipal corporations are now required to provide progress reports by the 15th day of the following month.

If this is not done, no money will be allocated to the respective corporation.

The Local Government Ministry will also strengthen its monitoring and oversight of the social assistance programme.