By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Deputy Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunemedia.net

AN Auditor General’s report into the Magistrate’s Court has exposed instances of cashiers allegedly altering payment receipts and nearly two dozen missing cheques.

The findings prompted recommendations for investigations to be carried out over several inconsistencies. 

Another incident – a missing endorsed blank cheque for $6,000 that was later cashed — was directly given to the Royal Bahamas Police Force for further investigation.

Auditor General Terrance Bastian noted differences between amounts that were paid for maintenance support – either child support or spousal support payments — versus the amount that cashiers posted to client cards for these payments.

Only a sample size of client payments were reviewed, but it was enough for Mr Bastian to note that “when a cashier alters a client’s receipt, it could lead to inaccurate maintenance support payments, inaccurate arrears calculations for both civil and domestic court clients and mistrust of the court system.”

For this portion of the audit, 12 separate client receipts from 2017 to 2019 were found to have discrepancies. The concerns were outlined in a report looking into the Magistrate’s Court’s accounts department for the period July 1, 2016 to June 30, 2018.

In one instance, the initial amount entered for a client was $400 but the amount posted to the client’s card was $100. Another client amount was entered at $350 but nothing was posted to the client card. At several other times there was a $100 difference between the initial amount entered and the actual amount posted to the client’s card. Even a difference of $20 was highlighted after one client paid $220, but only $200 was posted to the card.

The report said given the discrepancies in amounts posted to client cards, there had been an outstanding balance of $1,670, adding: “When receipts are altered arbitrarily, the amount for the intended recipient is compromised.”

The auditor general also looked at how long it took for payment receipts to be modified.

This was made possible by the QuickBooks audit trail report, which provides a log of all transactions within the company file.

Through this log, the report said in one instance the time between one initial sales receipt and when it was modified was 20 days. For another receipt, the modification time was five days. Some modifications seemed to happen immediately while others took place over a matter of hours or minutes.

“The modification of receipts without management’s approval should raise a red flag or which should give cause for a closer review of all voided, edited or modified receipts,” the report notes. “Modified receipts where the amount received is reduced would significantly affect the bank balance and the amounts to be paid to the recipient.”

Missing cheques were also a cause for concern among the audit team.

During the financial probe, officials were informed that an endorsed blank cheque dated May 16, 2018 was missing and subsequently cashed on May 24, 2018 in the amount of $6,000.

“This matter was given to the police for further investigation,” the report said.

Auditors were further made aware of 20 other missing cheques, spanning April 2019 to May 2019.

The cheques totalled $13,675, the highest valued at $2,754.

“The cheques were not found at the time of this audit and subsequently management placed stop payments on the cheques. Due to negligence, the deposit fund account incurred cancellation fees of $45 per cheque totaling $900. An investigation was undertaken by management, which resulted in management having to prepare replacement cheques,” the report noted.

Other issues highlighted were that for domestic and civil cases, arrears schedules attached to files were manually prepared and in most cases inaccurate; payments had not been posted on client cards; and clients were still paying support payments even after the child had reached the age of maturity.

Neither had reconciliations for the court’s chequing account for three years 2016 to 2018 – the period under audit, been carried out.

For its part, management of the Magistrate’s Court said access had been given to cashiers for them to correct client’s names on receipts at the time of payment.

Management said administrators of the system were given instructions for two supervisors to have void access at some point in 2018.

“The modification and edit access has been taken from the cashiers and only the supervisors can void,” management said in its response to the audit’s findings.

Contacted for comment yesterday, Attorney General Carl Bethel said he was aware of the basic allegations in the report and indicated that the matter as of two weeks ago was being attended to by the relevant authorities.