Education and Youth – Auditor General's Department

Capacity of Skills Training Programme HEART/National Service Training Agency (NSTA)

Luigi McDonald — Wed, 30 Sep 2020 14:48:48 +0000

According to the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN) annual Labour Force Surveys over the past four years, September 2014 to October 2018, on average 61 per cent of the Jamaican labour force neither held a professional or vocational certification nor has been exposed to any formal skills, apprenticeship or on the job training. The goal under Vision 2030 Jamaica National Development Plan (NDP) – Outcome #2 is for Jamaica to achieve “World-Class Education and Training” by 2030. The aim being to equip Jamaica’s workforce with the skills demanded by an evolving economy and to improve the capacity to support opportunities for education and training. Considering the role of the Human Employment and Resource Training/National Service and Training Agency (HEART/NSTA) in contributing to improving the opportunities for skills training, particularly among the unattached youths, the Auditor General included the audit of the Capacity of Skills Training Programme in our Strategic Audit Plan.

The objective of the audit was to determine whether HEART and the Country received value from the money spent on skills training programmes. We concluded that despite significant efforts, HEART only achieved a certification rate of 45 per cent relative to enrolment in skills training programme for the period 2014-15 to 2018-19, suggesting that it did not obtain optimal value from training expenditure of $30.5 billion. While some of the challenges were not entirely within the control of HEART, there were operational deficiencies that needed to be corrected to improve HEART’s overall effectiveness. The Auditor General urges HEART to immediately implement the recommendations in this report. There is also need for HEART to coordinate with other state agencies to further improve its effectiveness.

Jamaica Library Service (JLS)

Luigi McDonald — Thu, 16 Jan 2020 17:54:15 +0000

We conducted an audit of the library service to determine the extent to which JLS measured and responded to the impact of technological changes while contributing to Vision 2030 Jamaica National Development Plan (NDP) and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We also assessed whether aspects of JLS financial and human resource management were consistent with good practices and accorded with GoJ regulations. The audit did not seek to prescribe the strategies, which should be considered in responding to change.

Performance Audit Report – Procurement Management Ministry of Education, Youth and Information (MoEYI)

Adrian McNeil — Tue, 23 Jul 2019 22:28:32 +0000

Public sector entities are guided by the Handbook of Public Procurement Procedures, which embraces good practices and the concepts of value for money in acquiring goods and services for public benefit. Given the transactional value of procurement activities, it is important that public officers do not treat procurement simply as a routine administrative exercise, but seek to obtain value for money from all purchases of goods and services whilst ensuring fairness and transparency. The findings of previous audits of public entities revealed that despite compliance with the procurement guidelines, the Government still suffered losses arising from the absence of good governance arrangements, such as planning and monitoring of the contract process.

This audit was conducted to determine if the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information (MoEYI) planned and conducted its procurement activities whilst embracing good practices to attain value for money. The audit focused primarily on expenditure relating to the purchase of textbooks, school furniture and the repairs, maintenance and construction of school facilities for the period 2013-14 to 2017-18. The audit concluded that MoEYI’s procurement activities did not always conform with good practices including proper oversight of planning processes in accordance with fiduciary responsibilities to prevent misuse of Government funds and facilitate achievement of value for money. MoEYI often utilized direct and emergency procurements for school constructions and repairs, which under many circumstances did not constitute emergencies and provided no assurance of cost effectiveness. MoEYI was also deficient in monitoring the distribution of textbooks and school furniture to schools, which prevented it from reducing waste and maximizing efforts to secure greater value from these expenditures.