International Journal of Government Auditing – April 2003
St. Kitts and Nevis
2001 Annual Report Issued
In his 2001 annual report to Parliament, St. Kitts' Director of Audit stated that although expenditure control showed signs of improvement, the results indicated that a great deal still needs to be done. He pointed out that despite Parliament's approval of the budget, its implementation ought to be guided by realities of the day:
"The various Ministries pursue their objectives as laid out in the detailed Programs of the Estimates as approved by Parliament. One point of view that I have heard expressed quite recently is that as the Budget is done on a Program basis, provided that expenditure is incurred on that basis, there should be no concern for savings, as all allocations should be spent in full and at the discretion of the Ministries.
Unfortunately, the word 'efficiency' and its meaning seldom features in the line of reasoning. Furthermore, managers with such concepts make expenditure control even more onerous for the Ministry of Finance."
The result on the recurrent account was a deficit of $55.2 million. Because of the high level of capital revenue realized, the outturn on the capital account was an impressive surplus of $44.96 million. The net result of the 2001 financial operations was a modest deficient of $10.22 million.
The report also drew attention to the increasing cost of debt servicing (30.22 percent of recurrent revenue in 2001.) Nevertheless, St. Kitts is still current and timely with its payments. All amortization schedules were current and the government was not in any significant arrears with any of its loan obligations as of year-end.
For further information, contact: National Audit Office, Basseterre, St. Kitts and Nevis; fax: ++1(869) 466-8510; e-mail: auditoffskn@caribsurf.com