Auditor General calls out $29m credit card 'error' at Parliament

The Auditor General’s Department (AuGD) has raised concerns about the monitoring of a Government credit card issued to the Houses of Parliament (HoP) after a $29 million transaction appeared to have gone unnoticed for five months.

The concerns were raised in a special audit of the HoP. The report was tabled in House of Representatives on Tuesday.

The audit was conducted following allegations of mismanagement and or misuse of the Government-issued credit card assigned to the HoP.

The AuGD concluded that the card was “appropriately utilised” by the HoP, but flagged the “erroneous” $28.9 million transaction as an indication of a monitoring lapse.

The report revealed that on January 28 this year, the HoP asked its bank to debit its recurring expenditure account with the Jamaican equivalent of US$181,026.73.

It requested, too, that the money be credited to its US dollar MasterCard account held at a the same financial institution.

The following day, according to the audit report, the Accountant General’s Department transferred $181,026.73 to the HoP’s current account “for reimbursement of expenditure related to the Government-funded credit card incurred for the period”.

However, the AuGD asserted that on January 31, the financial institution withdrew $28.9 million from the current account and credited US$181,026.73 - the Jamaican dollar equivalent - to the credit card account.

The report noted that the HoP made a payment on January 27 this year of US$1,299.87 “towards the outstanding balance of US$2,660.84”.

“We saw no evidence that the CCA [credit card administrator] queried the transaction as part of the review and monitoring responsibilities,” the report said.

It noted that nearly five months later the HoP requested a correction of the transaction via a letter to the financial institution dated May 28, 2025.

The financial institution corrected the error on June 18, 2025 by way of credit balance refund in the amount of US$177,109.37, which was lodged to the HoP’s current account, the report said.

The AuGD said this overpayment on the credit card raised questions regarding the regular monitoring function over the credit card as stipulated by the Financial Administration and Audit (FAA) Act.

The legislation mandates the preparation of monthly reconciliations between the amounts claimed by banks for payment and bill/sales draft submitted by the cardholder.

The audit report said the HoP did not present any evidence to indicate that credit card administrator conducted the requisite monthly reconciliations.

Meanwhile, the audit report revealed that in May, the finance ministry wrote to the HoP outlining its concerns regarding "non-compliance with guidelines for the use of the government-funded credit card". The ministry also directed the suspension of the use of the credit card and requested a report on the operations of the credit card issued to the HoP.

-Livern Barrett

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