Government oversight
Civil service still failing to manage the people’s cash
(CNS): The auditor general has once again called out the public sector management on its continued failure to implement recommendations made by her office and the Public Accounts Committee for better management of the people’s money. In the latest report, which followed up on past findings going back as far as 2017, Sue Winspear said […]
OAG: MITAMA broke law re CI$6M spent on o’seas promos
(CNS): The former administration broke the law when it committed the current government to around $6 million in spending over the next five years on overseas promotion. The former premier’s ministry signed agreements and contracts to open overseas offices and attend an Expo in Dubai just days before and after the election. The breaches of […]
Ombudsman sees 50% increase in data breaches
(CNS): The Ombudsman’s office saw a 15% increase in data protection queries from the public during 2021, largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic and issues around vaccination status. But the office also said there was a 50% increase in the number of data breaches being reported, where personal data had been accessed, lost, altered or […]
CS bosses drag their feet over PAC feedback
(CNS): Auditor General Sue Winspear has raised concerns that senior civil servants are falling behind when it comes to responding to Public Accounts Committee reports. While she noted improvements in implementing past recommendations made by PAC, based on reports from her office, she warned that the failure to produce a formal response to the committee […]
CO blames pandemic for failure to respond to OAG
(CNS): Acting Chief Officer Nellie Pouchie blamed the impact of the pandemic on the health ministry when it was already short-staffed, as she explained why the ministry had not responded to a report by the Office of the Auditor General that raised significant concerns about the pharmacy services.
COVID contracts and spending under scrutiny
(CNS): The money government has spent on supplies to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic is being scrutinized by the Office of the Auditor General. Since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, government has spent tens of millions of dollars managing the impact of the virus here, both directly and indirectly.
CIG still struggling to fully account for public cash
(CNS): The audits of the consolidated accounts for the Entire Public Sector (EPS) for both 2019 and 2020 are ongoing as a result of a catalogue of issues that still prevent government’s financial officers from properly accounting for the public cash it collects. In her review of the 2020 accounts and the general state of […]
Audit finds multiple problems with HSA pharmacy
(CNS): A catalogue of problems were identified by an audit of the Health Service Authority’s Outpatient Pharmacy Services. With issues such as two failed back-to-back procurement exercises to secure the supply of essential medications and a law that is four decades old with no overarching provision to control the quality and safety of medicines, the […]
Health ministry needs more staff to manage workload
(CNS): The failure of the Ministry of Health to implement long standing recommendations by the Office of the Auditor General relating to healthcare provision is due to a lack of senior staff, Acting Chief Officer Nellie Pouchie told the Public Accounts Committee on Wednesday.
Pandemic causes significant drop in FOI requests
(CNS): The COVID-19 pandemic had a major impact on the number of freedom of information requests made by members of the public last year, according to the Office of the Ombudsman, which released the statistics to mark International Right to Know Day on Tuesday. The number of requests in 2020 was the lowest ever made […]
Gov’t paid only lip service to PAC’s reform advice
(CNS): The former chair of the Public Accounts Committee has said that, with the assistance of the auditor general, over the last few years PAC had significant success getting government’s accounts sorted out, but it was much less effective in achieving substantive reform and greater accountability in the area of value for public money.
