Audit Report 2015/2016 cites multiple discrepancies including missing monies

Nearly a decade after the close of the 2015/2016 fiscal year, the Auditor General’s Report on the Government of Belize’s finances has finally reached the House of Representatives. The report, formally submitted to Prime Minister John Briceño on July 31, 2025, was tabled in Parliament on Friday, September 12.  It is a critical delay that once again highlights the lack of proper fiscal management and accountability by past and current administrations.  Under the Finance and Audit Reform Act, audited accounts should be produced within months of the fiscal year’s close. Instead, the Accountant General only submitted the 2015/2016 financial statements on May 9, almost nine years late. It is this backlog that has prevented Parliament and other stakeholders from exercising timely oversight into the management of taxpayer funds.  This, however, is nothing new to the news media as our archive shows concerns expressed time and time again over the lack of current audit reports.  As a matter of fact, even the Prime Minister has acknowledged the causes and the delays.  Back in December 2023, the Prime Minister appeared before the Joint Public Accounts Committee where the many challenges in getting an audit done were presented to him.  Here is how he reacted after that meeting.

John Briceño, Prime Minister: “Meeting this morning with the joint committee from the House and the Senate for the Public Accounts. We were pointing out some glaring challenges that we’re facing that for way to long governments have not been balancing the books, not been balancing their accounts. Something that’s foreign to people like myself that come from the private sector. Your bank account you balance it every month and here we are not balancing, we don’t do it, the department doesn’t do it, ministries don’t do it for a very long time and it is important for us to be able to be held accountable for the people’s money. That is a part of the democracy. It is a part of the democracy when any person can be called in front of this committee to be able to answer starting with the Prime Minister and yes the first time when they told me they want to call me the first thing that came to my mind is why do I have to go to that committee but it was the right decision. This is the development and the strengthening of our democracy, of this culture of having to ensure that we are answerable at all times and that we can be more open and more transparent to our people and to the people that we have appointed in these different committees.”

As for the 2015/2016 report, it scrutinizes the financial operations of several core government bodies, including the Accountant General’s Department, responsible for preparing national accounts; the Treasury, where suspected fraud in online payments was flagged; the Ministry of Health, with audits of the Dangriga and San Antonio polyclinics uncovering unaccounted funds; the Government’s Electronic Payroll System, where irregularities in payroll authorizations and processing were detected, as well as the revenue-collecting agencies such as Customs and the Belize Tax Service, which continue to operate in data silos outside the Smart Stream system.  Notably, the Auditor General declined to issue an opinion on the 2015/2016 accounts, citing missing records, poorly organized storerooms, and the absence of supporting documents. Essentially, this disclaimer signals that Belize’s financial statements for the year cannot be relied upon as a true reflection of the government’s financial position.  Additionally, the report found serious mismatches between reported expenditure in financial statements and the figures recorded in Smart Stream, which is the government’s financial management system. Examples of this include the Magistrate Court where expenditure of $101,203 was reported versus $187,341 in Smart Stream – a gap of more than $86,000; also, in the paying out pensions, seventy point seven million dollars were reported but only sixty-eight point five million dollars were paid out; a difference of two point two million dollars.  In the health sector, thirty-seven point two million dollars were reported as spent but the records only reflect thirty-five point seven million dollars, a difference of one point four-eight million dollars.  As it relates to payroll management, there was some troubling data.  In one instance, a salary increase was authorized by the officer who stood to benefit, violating basic internal controls.  In another instance, errors in payroll processing led to overpayments, misapplied deductions, and incentive allowances replacing vacation leave payments.  The report also noted that there were unrecorded transactions and bank failures where the Accountant General’s Department failed to record large financial transactions on time, including more than $500,000 in IDB project reimbursements. Even more concerning, no bank reconciliations were performed for Central Bank of Belize or commercial accounts throughout the fiscal year. As we noted, this report for 2015/2016 was laid on the table at the last House Meeting and will now go to the Joint Public Accounts Committee for analysis and review./