| Annual Report of the Accountant-General for the year ended 30 June 2003 THE TREASURY The Accountant-General is the administrative head of the Treasury, a department of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Mauritius. The statutory duties of the Accountant-General are laid down in various legislation and regulations. The Finance and Audit Act specifically requires the Accountant-General to sign and submit to the Director of Audit, within 6 months of the close of every financial year, financial statements showing fully the financial position of the Republic of Mauritius on the last day of such financial year. The responsibilities of the Treasury include, inter alia, ensuring the adequacy of departmental accounting systems and procedures as laid down in the Financial Management Manual and other financial regulations and legislation and advising Accounting Officers of Ministries/Departments on accounting and financial matters. 2. FINANCIAL STATEMENTS The accounts were closed on 29 August 2003. The Statement of Assets and Liabilities and the detailed Statements of Revenue and Expenditure show, inter alia:- (i) the financial position of the Republic of Mauritius as at 30 June 2003; (ii) the accumulated balance of the Consolidated and the Capital Funds; (iii) deposits made with Government for certain specific purposes; (iv) the outstanding advances made from the Contingencies Fund; (v) the total amount received under each head of revenue; (vi) the total amount spent under each vote and item of expenditure.
3. CONSOLIDATED FUND The original estimates for the year anticipated a deficit of Rs 3,130 million and the revised estimates, a deficit of Rs 3,420 million. The actual result was a deficit of Rs 4,042.7 million. The total revenue for the year amounted to Rs 29,486.8 million, i.e. Rs 13.2 million less than the original estimates of Rs 29,500 million. Total revenue for the previous financial year was Rs 24,606.1 million. The expenditure for the year amounted to Rs 33,529.5 million, i.e. Rs 899.5 million more than the original estimates of Rs 32,630 million. Last year’s expenditure was Rs 29,577 million. The accumulated deficit of the Fund as at 30 June 2003, stood at to Rs 35,801.9 million. Detailed statements of revenue and expenditure are included in this report (Statement D and Statement D1). 4. CAPITAL FUND The total revenue for the year was Rs 3,153.3 million compared with the estimated figure of Rs 5,452 million. Revenue includes grants amounting to Rs 362.7 million and loans totalling Rs 759.9 million from external sources and Rs 1,244.6 million from Local Sources. Last year’s revenue was Rs 4,895.1 million. The total expenditure amounted to Rs 8,407 million compared with an estimated figure of
Rs 9,130 million. The previous year’s expenditure was Rs 6,092.2 million. The deficit for the year was Rs 5,253.7 million. As a result, the accumulated deficit increased to Rs 15,139.3 million as at 30 June 2003.
5. CONTINGENCIES FUND
During the year a total amount of Rs 1,126.2 million was appropriated to the Contingencies Fund and total advances made from the Fund amounted to Rs 1,072.1 million. 6. SPECIAL FUNDS As at 30 June 2003, there were 8 Special Funds totalling Rs 1,962.1 million which were deposited with the Accountant-General. 7. PUBLIC DEBT At 30 June 2003, Public Debt excluding short term borrowings stood at Rs 20,824 million, of which Rs 12,274.3 million and Rs 8,549.7 million represented internal and external debt respectively. The cost of servicing the public debt during the year amounted to Rs 8,460 million and was as follows:- | Interest | Rs (m) | | External Debt | 188.6 | | Internal Debt | 1,196.5 | | Short Term Borrowings | 5,076.6 | | Sinking Fund | 1,151.3 | | Management/Service Charges | 10.8 | | Capital Repayments | 836.2 |
ORGANISATION STRUCTURE
The Treasury is made up of sections arranged functionally as follows:- Accounts and I.T. Section – responsible for:- (a) the maintenance of the Government’s central accounting records;
(b) timely closing of the Republic’s monthly and yearly accounts and advising Ministries and Departments on Accounting matters;
(c ) the preparation, consolidation and publication of the accounts of the Republic of
Mauritius; and (d) the Management of the Republic’s cash flows.
(ii) Car Loan Section – responsible for the processing of applications for car/motorcycle advances to public officers and officers on contract. During the period under review, a total amount of Rs 190.6 million was advanced to 932 officers as detailed below:-
| No. of officers | Amount of Loan granted Rs (m) | | Motor-Cycle | 295 | 16.4 | | Motor-Car | 637 | 174.2 | | 932 | 190.6 |
(iii) Chief Cashier and Payable Order Sections – responsible for the payment of salaries and allowances to Government employees, pensions and gratuities to retired Government employees, cost of goods and services supplied to Government by contractors and other suppliers. The Chief Cashier also acts as a revenue collector and as paying agent in respect of certain types of payments. Finance Section – responsible for:- (a) payment of salaries and allowances to the staff of the Treasury;
(b) examination of payment vouchers for non-self Accounting Ministries/Departments;
(c) payment of air tickets and allowances in connection with overseas missions;
(d) overseas payments in foreign currencies to contractors on behalf of non self-accounting Ministries/Departments;
(e) purchase, issue and control of safes.
(v) Licences Section – responsible for the collection of revenue through the issue and renewal of game licences under the Wild Life and National Parks Act. As at 30 June 2003, the number of Licensees on record was 5,852.
(vi) Loan Section – responsible for the issue of loans to statutory bodies, local authorities and other bodies and the monitoring of loan repayments and interest charges. During the year 2002-2003, a total amount of Rs 417.1 million was disbursed as loans whilst capital and interest repayments totalled Rs 223.1 million and Rs 124.4 million respectively:- The balance of such loans outstanding at year end, totalled Rs 4,831.7 million. (vii) Passages Section – responsible for the verification and payment of passage benefits to eligible Government employees and for the confirmation of passage arrangements for public officers proceeding on overseas leave and for delegates on official missions abroad. Some 16,893 cases were dealt with during the year involving a total expenditure of Rs 312.8 m as follows:- | No. of cases | Amount Rs (m) | | Passage cost | 7,818 | 75.8 | | Cash in lieu of passages | 9,075 | 237.0 | | | 312.8 |
(viii) Pensions Section – responsible for the computation and payment of pensions/gratuities and other allowances to retired Government employees, beneficiaries of deceased public officers/deceased pensioners, officers on contract and former members of the National Assembly, Ministers’ Drivers and Constituencies Clerks. During the financial year under review, the number of cases dealt with, were as categorised below:- (a) Retiring Gratuities | 1,250 | | (b) Death Gratuities | 1,257 | | (c) Contract Gratuities | 260 | | Retiring/Contract/Death Gratuities | 73 | | (d) Others | 1,518.7 | | 2,840 |
As at 30 June 2003, there were 19,008 pensioners and 207 recipients of compassionate allowances on record.
Disbursements made during the year were as follows:-
| Rs (m) | National Assembly Retiring Allowances | 23.5 | | Pensions | 1,162.4 | | Compassionate Allowances | 6.1 | | Retiring/Contract/Death Gratuities | 392.5 | | 1,584.5 |
Personnel Section – ensuring that personnel policies, rules, regulations and procedures are properly interpreted and applied consistently, providing advice, functional guidance and assistance on all personnel matters, including appointment and promotion, leave and passages, discipline, retiring benefits, industrial relation and welfare of staff. As at 30 June 2003 there were 171 officers of different classes/cadres working at the Treasury. (x) Purchasing & Supplies Section – responsible for the:- (a) indenting of all controlled Accounts Book Forms, Accounts Forms, Licences, Finance and Store Forms from the Government Printer for subsequent issues to Ministries/ Departments;
(b) purchase and supply of stationery, furniture, equipment; and
(c) disposal of unserviceable items for this department. (xi) Registry – responsible for receipt and despatch of correspondences, filing and indexing of letters, channelling of letters to sections concerned, ensuring proper file movements to various sections. (xii) Revenue Section – responsible for:- (a) all Government overseas orders and payments thereof on behalf of non self-accounting Ministries/Departments;
(b) supervision of District Cash Offices whose function is to decentralise the services provided by the Treasury specifically in the collection and accounting of revenues and the payment of pensions and compassionate allowance;
(c) collection of shooting and fishing lease tax and other miscellaneous revenue;
(d) dealing with claims for accidents involving Government vehicles;
(e) dealing with write off cases in connection with arrears of revenue;
(f) preparation of annual financial statement of Arrears of revenue. (xiii) Voucher Room – responsible for the classification and binding of all receipt and payment vouchers and other accounting records of non self-accounting Ministries and Departments on a monthly basis.
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