By Kimone Witter
The Jamaica Fire Brigade has failed to prepare and submit annual reports and audited financial statements for the last four years.
The Auditor General's Department said the JFB's delay in producing the reports for the period 2019-2020 and 2021-2022 is not only a breach of the Public Bodies Management and Accountability Act and the Fire Brigade Act, but also undermines the oversight responsibilities of the Local Government Ministry and Parliament.
The information is outlined in a Performance Audit report tabled in Parliament on Tuesday.
Auditor General Pamela Monroe Ellis said the Jamaica Fire Brigade's management attributed the delay in preparing and submitting the reports to high staff attrition among key personnel.
In addition, Mrs Monroe Ellis said the JFB is awaiting a waiver for accumulated interest and penalty in the amount of $80.6 million owed to Tax Administration Jamaica for the period 2013 to 2016 in relation to statutory deductions.
As at January this year, the matter remained unresolved.
The Auditor General's Department also found that all five of the Brigade's bank accounts were not reconciled for periods ranging from one month to 29 months.
It said this failure to prepare monthly bank reconciliation increased the risks of financial losses as management may not be able to promptly identify and correct accounting and bank errors or irregularities, including erroneous debits, which could result in losses.
The AGD has recommended that the Jamaica Fire Brigade ensure strict adherence to the applicable Acts and circulars in relation to the preparation of annual reports, audited financial statements and bank reconciliation statements.
The Performance Audit of the Jamaica Fire Brigade was triggered by the findings of a 2014 examination of its operations.
The Auditor General's Department said three recommendations from the previous audit were partially implemented while there was no progress on one.
Among the recommendations was increased building inspections. But the Auditor General found that while the Brigade stepped up building inspections between the years 2017-2022, follow-up inspections for non-conformities have been minimal, with only 49 or ten per cent follow-ups from a sample of 500 buildings identified with breaches.
The Brigade also explained that it was yet to develop an information system to manage and monitor its fleet in accordance with the Auditor General's recommendation, attributing this failure to a lack of funding for ICT support in successive budgets over the last four financial years.
Additionally, the Performance Audit tabled in Parliament on Tuesday found that the level of fire investigations was a mere one per cent of reported fires over the review period, while the ratio of out of commission vehicles was relatively high, though somewhat improved relative to the 2014 audit.