THERE IS another aspect to the reports that some Government agencies are failing to pay over statutory deductions but were using the funds to meet operational expenses, and it relates to the annual budget exercise. The funds that are not being paid over are said to run into billions of dollars.
As the head of the Fire Brigade, Major H. George Benson put it very starkly, "the money is not enough to pay salaries. Salaries are sometimes paid in three parts". And "trucks have to run, gas has to be in the engines, tyres have to be bought ... the money is not enough to pay over the statutory deductions and do the other things".
Which raises the issue of the adequacy, or lack of it, of the annual budget exercise, which is undertaken by the Ministry of Finance. As we understand it, the system calls for Government agencies and departments to prepare estimates of expenditure.
These estimates are submitted to the Ministry of Finance, which engages in a pruning and adjustment exercise before arriving at the budget which details the Government's revenue and expenditure for the ensuing year.
We would have expected that the salaries for the officers in the Fire Brigade, including the statutory deductions, would have been budgeted for, as would have been sums for the operations of the organisation, including the purchasing of fuel and tyres for the fire trucks. These could by no stretch of the imagination be considered extraordinary items of expenditure.
The explanations about the shortfall and the cash flow problems of the Government agencies need to come from the Minister of Finance and should be provided before he undertakes the next budget exercise.
Bear in mind also, as the Auditor-General himself told the Public Accounts Committee last week, the practice of diverting statutory deductions to be used as working capital is fairly widespread and in breach of the law.
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