Inquiry being conducted into operations of Maritime Administration

– Department to be restructured

Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Public Works, Mr. Vladim Persaud, on Monday, said an inquiry is being conducted into the finances and operations of the Maritime Administration Department (MARAD).

Mr. Persaud said the audits would be completed soon, after which the recently installed Management Advisory Board has been tasked with devising a strategy that would lead to a total restructuring of the agency’s operations.

“Right now, we have an inquiry into the agency…the agency was bottom heavy in that we didn’t have the managerial skill set and we had more lower tier staff. So, while they were generating revenues, the agency just operates rather than placing emphasis on where the agency could be in the next five to 10 years,” he said.

The Permanent Secretary was at the time responding to questions from the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) regarding the backlog of audits into MARAD. The Department came up for questioning when the Ministry of Public Works appeared before the PAC to answer issues raised in the Auditor General’s report of 2016.

Committee Member and Minister of Public Works, Hon. Bishop Juan Edghill and Chairman of the Committee and former Minister of Public Infrastructure, Hon. David Patterson recused themselves from that session. The session was chaired by Opposition Member of Parliament, Hon. Jermaine Figueira.

Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Public Works, Mr. Vladim Persaud along with his technical officers during the Public Accounts Committee meeting at Parliament Buildings

Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance, Hon. Gail Teixeira

The Auditor General’s report revealed that the last audit report issued for MARAD was for 2005 and the last report laid in the National Assembly for 2003. The slothfulness of these audits was a result of the agency not submitting their financial records to the auditing agency in a timely manner.

Permanent Secretary Persaud clarified that the 2006 audit has been completed and MARAD is currently responding to those findings. The Audit Office has started audits for the period 2007 to 2009, and 2010 to 2018 are awaiting a response from the Office before the process could begin. The financial statements for 2019 are set to be completed within the first quarter of 2021.

Mr. Persaud explained that MARAD has been lagging behind with its financial statements because of the lack of skilled technical personnel to deal with financing and accounting.

“The agency has over the years, suffered a lot of loss in the context of human resources and being able to garner those human resources… so, there will be a restructuring, looking at salary and acquiring the requisite personnel for the execution of the agency’s mandate,” he said.

In 2016, MARAD received over $653 million in subvention from the Government to conduct its mandate. Committee Member and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance, Hon. Gail Teixeira questioned why the agency could not hire an accountant to carry out its work over the past years. She advised the Ministry to ensure all steps are taken to remedy this situation and avoid such lapses in the future.

In response, Mr. Persaud assured the PAC that all efforts are being made to reduce the backlog within a timely manner, and that these delays would not be repeated.

Auditor General, Mr. Deodat Sharma also gave assurances that his agency would complete all the audits this year. The PAC is mandated to examine the audited accounts, as presented in the Auditor General’s Report, showing the appropriation of sums granted by the National Assembly to meet public expenditure.