The auditor general urged the ministry to “review its systems to ensure that the controls in place to enforce the eligibility requirements for PATH beneficiaries are operating effectively to reduce the risk of irregular or erroneous payments”.

Monroe Ellis said that the ministry should also take the necessary steps to ensure that only legitimate beneficiaries who have satisfied all the requisite criteria are paid the COVID-19 PATH grants.

Monroe Ellis reported that in response to the findings of her audit, the ministry placed a hold on the payment for the 8,933 beneficiaries and conducted a review to determine the actual eligibility status of each of the additional persons.

The ministry acknowledged that 4,354 new beneficiaries did not sign the agreement letter as required by the PATH Operations Manual, but they satisfied the other requirements of the programme for eligibility.

The ministry also indicated that for the May 2020 payment, “the requirement to sign the agreement letter was relaxed, owing to social distancing, reduced office hours, and other measures implemented by the Government in response to the COVID-19 pandemic”.