Auditor General Flags Hundreds of Thousands in BDF Financial Irregularities

The concerns raised in the 2016/2017 Auditor General’s Report go well beyond the money collected for jungle training.  Chapter Five points to several BDF accounts where hundreds of thousands of dollars were either poorly managed, spent without proper records or handled outside the Government’s accounting system.  The transactions happened mainly in 2015 and 2016, but they appear in the 2017–2018 report because the audits and follow-up work continued during that period.  Among the findings is sixty-two thousand, seven hundred and thirty-five dollars and seventy-three cents in BDF credit card purchases that were not properly accounted for.  Auditors also flagged more than two hundred and twenty thousand dollars in suspected mismanagement involving another Atlantic Bank account.  A further sixty-three thousand, nine hundred and twenty-eight dollars and five cents was collected and spent as petty cash without authorization. That money was handled outside the Government’s approved accounting system.  The BDF Benevolent Fund also came under scrutiny. Auditors examined thirty-nine thousand, one hundred and eighty dollars in receipts and spending and found weaknesses in how contributions were recorded, how payments were approved and how the bank account was reconciled.  A follow-up check of ten blank duplicate receipts uncovered another three thousand, three hundred and two dollars that could not be accounted for.  CEO Francis Usher says the ministry has since made changes to tighten the way BDF funds are handled.

Francis Usher, CEO, Ministry of National Defence: “So I do know that we have put a lot of safeguards in place internally. We have since hired an internal auditor, the Inspector General, who is a trained auditor. He audits all of the non-public funds on an annual basis. So he audits the Benevolent Fund, the BDF Fund, all of the non-public funds that fall under the Ministry of National Defense and Border Security. In addition to that, it is not as easy for one or even two people to get funds released. It requires an entire system and layers of approvals before funds can be released and multiple signatories on the checks that can be released from these accounts. So these are all internal safeguards that we’ve put in place to ensure that this sort of alleged mismanagement can never occur again.”

Our newsroom will have more on the 2017/2018 Report and its findings.