A startling financial discrepancy of $28.96 million has exposed significant governance failures within Jamaica’s parliamentary accounting systems, triggering intense scrutiny during Tuesday’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) hearing. The controversy centers on a massive credit card transfer that remained undetected for four months, revealing critical weaknesses in financial oversight protocols.
Manchester Southern MP Peter Bunting spearheaded the criticism, directly challenging Parliament Clerk Colleen Lowe to accept institutional responsibility for what he characterized as a catastrophic breakdown in basic financial controls. Bunting, drawing on his banking background, presented a detailed analysis demonstrating that the error originated entirely from ambiguous wording in Parliament’s own instruction letter to the financial institution.
The special audit from the Auditor General’s Department, while finding no evidence of personal misuse of government funds, documented concerning deficiencies including poor monitoring mechanisms, delayed reporting procedures, and the extraordinary transfer error that allowed millions to move between accounts without prompt detection. The audit revealed that the $28.96 million withdrawal occurred after Parliament requested a substantially smaller payment related to credit card operations, with the massive overpayment remaining unnoticed for several months before eventual reversal.
Committee Chairman Julian Robinson pressed Lowe on how such a substantial discrepancy could evade detection, questioning whether regular account reconciliations were consistently performed before the appointment of a new principal finance officer. Lowe conceded that existing systems were inadequate, noting that proper oversight protocols were not consistently maintained.
The clerk attempted to shift partial blame to the banking institution, highlighting that the credit card had a modest $5,000 limit and questioning how such an enormous transfer could be processed without verification. She referenced standard banking practices where unusual transactions typically trigger confirmation calls to authorized officials.
However, Bunting systematically dismantled this defense, reading directly from the problematic instruction letter that clearly requested debiting the recurrent expenditure account with a Jamaican equivalent amount to be credited to the US dollar account. He emphasized that any competent banking professional would interpret such wording literally, placing responsibility squarely on Parliament’s administrative leadership for both the erroneous instruction and the subsequent failure to detect the transaction through regular reconciliations.
The hearing concluded with broader concerns about financial governance standards within Jamaica’s highest legislative body, with committee members demanding immediate implementation of strengthened controls and accountability measures.