FRAUD SUSPECTED AS E5.1BN MISSING AT TREASURY DEPT

MBABANE – Fraud, misappropriation and embezzlement may be reigning supreme at the Treasury Department as government’s bank accounts have an unexplained shortfall of E5.1 billion.

This has put the spotlight on wholly unacceptable banking reconciliation systems at the Treasury Department.                       
The suspect reconciliation done for the sake of ‘administrative convenience’ has not only created doubt over the entire process, but has also opened a window for fraud, misappropriation and embezzlement. 

 A bank reconciliation statement is a summary of banking and business activity that reconciles an entity’s bank account with its financial records.
The statement outlines the deposits, withdrawals and other activity impacting a bank account for a specific period.
To add insult to injury, this intolerable situation has cast doubt over the budget as well as other fiscal monitoring tools.    

“It should be stated that the amounts noted as differences are so significant that it renders the annual treasury accounts submitted to Parliament and other government agencies inaccurate and misleading,” according to a forensic report of the accountant general done by Kobla Quashie Consultants.

This is said to also undermine the precept of the annual budget, appropriation and other fiscal monitoring tools.                
The shortfall is in varying amounts in the 16 bank accounts which after review, were noted to be reflecting inaccuracies.
The consultants noted that there were poor bank reconciliation systems at the Treasury Department.

The consultants noted that the reconciliation differences were entered to ‘force’ the bank reconciliation statement to balance or reconcile.

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