| Annual Report of the Accountant-General for the year ended 30 June 2004
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 13 October 2004. 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 2004; (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 3,805 million and the revised estimates, a deficit of Rs 4,545 million. The actual result was a deficit of Rs 4,475.6 million. The total revenue for the year amounted to Rs 32,403.5 million, i.e. Rs 541.5 million less than the original estimates of Rs 32,945 million. Total revenue for the previous financial year was Rs 29,486.8 million. The expenditure for the year amounted to Rs 36,879.2 million, i.e. Rs 129.2 million more than the original estimates of Rs 36,750 million. Last year’s expenditure was Rs 33,529.5 million. The accumulated deficit of the Fund as at 30 June 2004, stood at Rs 40,007.6 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 7,124.9 million compared with the estimated figure of Rs 7,432 million. Revenue includes grants amounting to Rs 618.3 million and loans totalling Rs 726.9 million from external sources and Rs 4,740.2 million from Local Sources. Last year’s revenue was Rs 3,153.3 million. The total expenditure amounted to Rs 8,428.6 million compared with an estimated figure of Rs 9,180 million. The previous year’s expenditure was Rs 6,092.2 million. The deficit for the year was Rs 1,303.7 million. As a result, the accumulated deficit increased to Rs 16,443 million as at 30 June 2004.
5. CONTINGENCIES FUND
During the year a total amount of Rs 809.1 million was appropriated to the Contingencies Fund and total advances made from the Fund amounted to Rs 777.5 million. 6. SPECIAL FUNDS As at 30 June 2004, there were 7 Special Funds totalling Rs 120.5 million which were deposited with the Accountant-General. 7. PUBLIC DEBT At 30 June 2004, Public Debt stood at Rs 84,414.6 million, as under: | Internal Rs(m) | External Rs(m) | Total Rs(m) | | Long Term | 16,669.3 | 8,320.4 | 24,989.7 | | Short Term | 59,424.9 | _0000 | 59,424.9 | | 76,094.2 | 8,320.4 | 84,414.6 | | | | |
The cost of servicing the public debt during the year amounted to Rs 8,798.8 million and was as follows:- Interest Rs (m) External Debt 205.6 Internal Debt 1,296.5 Short Term Borrowings 5,175.2 Sinking Fund 1,227.4 Management/Service Charges 11.7 Capital Repayments 882.4  8,798.8 ORGANISATION STRUCTURE The Treasury is made up of sections arranged functionally as follows:- (i) Accounts and I.T. Section – responsible for:-
(a) the maintenance of the Government’s central computerised accounting records, through the Treasury Accounting System (TAS); (b) timely closing of the Republic’s monthly and yearly accounts; (c) the preparation, consolidation and publication of the accounts of the Republic of Mauritius;and (d) advising Ministries and Departments on accounting matters.
(ii) Cash Management Unit - responsible for the management of the Government’s cash flows, including: (a) Purchase of / payments in foreign currencies on behalf of Government. (b) Provision of funds to self accounting Ministries/Departments.
The cash management unit is also responsible for the determination of short term borrowings of the Government.
(iii) Car Loan Section – responsible for the processing of applications for car/motorcycle advances from public officers and officers on contract. During the period under review, a total amount of Rs 360.3 million was advanced to 1293 officers as detailed below:-
| No. of officers | Amount of Loan granted Rs (m) | | Motor-Cycle | 258 | 14.6 | | Motor-Car | 1035 | 345.7 | | 1293 | 360.3 |
(v) 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.
(vi) 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 2004, the number of Licencees on record was 5,874. (vii) 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 2003-2004, a total amount of Rs 541.5 million was disbursed as loans whilst capital and interest repayments totalled Rs 230.9 million and Rs 135.8 million respectively The balance of such loans outstanding at year end, totalled Rs 5,169.6 million. (viii) 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 12,811 cases were dealt with during the year involving a total expenditure of Rs 256.6 m as follows:- | No. of cases | Amount Rs (m) | | Passage cost | 5,288 | 67.0 | | Cash in lieu of passages | 7,523 | 189.6 | | | 256.6 |
(ix) 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, former members of the National Assembly and Ministers’ Drivers and Constituencies Clerks. During the financial year under review, the number of cases dealt with were as categorised below:- (a) Retiring Gratuities | 1,665 | | (b) Death Gratuities | 225 | | (c) Contract Gratuities | 295 | | (d) Others | 54 | | 2,239 | | |
As at 30 June 2004, there were 19,671 pensioners and 173 recipients of compassionate allowances on record.
Disbursements made during the year were as follows:-
| Rs (m) | National Assembly Retiring Allowances | 29.8 | | Pensions | 1,350.6 | | Compassionate Allowances | 5.9 | | Retiring/Contract/Death Gratuities | 586.1 | | 1,972.4 |
(x) Personnel Section – responsible for 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 2004 there were 184 officers of different classes/cadres working at the Treasury against 212 officers on establishment and in post. (xi) 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. (xii) Registry – responsible for receipt and despatch of correspondences, filing and indexing of letters, channelling of letters to sections concerned, ensuring proper file movement to various sections. (xiii) 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.
(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.
(xiv) District Cash Offices – responsible for collection and accounting of revenues and payments of pensions and compassionate allowance.
(xv) 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 and the destruction of obsolete accounting records. (iv) Chief Cashier and Payable Order Sections – responsible for the payment of salaries and allowances to Government employees, pensions and gratuities to retired Government employees and other beneficiaries, 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.
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