A comprehensive audit of Jamaica’s local government entities has uncovered systemic financial reporting failures across all 14 municipal corporations, with nearly 100 financial statements remaining undelivered for the current fiscal year. The Auditor General’s Department (AGD), in its recently tabled 2025 Annual Report, documents severe non-compliance with the Local Government (Financing and Financial Management) Act, revealing financial disarray that extends far beyond hurricane-affected regions.
While Hurricane Melissa impacted seven western parishes—St Elizabeth, Westmoreland, Hanover, St James, Trelawny, Manchester, and St Ann—the financial reporting deficiencies proved universal. The audit identified 95 missing financial statements across municipal corporations and a Parochial Revenue Fund, with some documentation gaps tracing back over a decade.
The St Ann Municipal Corporation emerged as the most delinquent entity with 15 outstanding financial statements dating to the 2010/2011 period. Westmoreland followed with 11 missing reports since 2014/2015, while St Thomas lacked 10 statements from 2015/2016. Clarendon and Kingston and St Andrew municipalities each showed nine missing reports, with St Mary documenting eight gaps since 2017/2018.
More alarmingly, the audit uncovered complete absences of accounting records in multiple municipalities. St Thomas Municipal Corporation could not provide documentation to verify $66 million in receivables, $54 million in liabilities, $287 million in expenditures, and $98 million in equity for 2012/2013. Similar discrepancies emerged in St Mary, where $73 million in cash equivalents, $32 million in receivables, and $98 million in liabilities lacked supporting documentation for 2015/2016.
Hanover Municipal Corporation attributed its missing 2017-2019 records to both time lapse and a December 2022 IT system failure, while Portmore Municipality cited a September security breach that damaged accounting servers and backup systems.
The Ministry of Local Government and Community Development, through its permanent secretary, is now implementing scheduled completion plans with targeted oversight in information technology and financial management. Auditor General Pamela Monroe Ellis emphasized the critical need for strengthened controls, particularly regarding cash management, receivables, liabilities, and revenue expenditure verification across all municipal entities.