Rentals costing close to one hundred million dollars for buildings the state never occupied. The Auditor General says the practice of paying rent for unoccupied buildings contravenes financial regulation 34, which places the responsibility on the accounting officer to eliminate non-essential services.

The buildings in question are said to be located in Barataria, Pembroke Street Port of Spain, La Romaine, Frederick Street Port of Spain, High Street Siparia, and the controversial one Alexandra Street St. Clair. The Auditor General’s 2015 report shows that the rents were being paid up to September 30^th last year and in some instances the rentals are ongoing.

The report was tabled in the senate yesterday. In the case of the building in Siparia, $525,718 was paid in rent between June 2014 and December last year. The arrangement was reportedly discontinued because there was no elevator in the building. The report says under the ministry of gender affairs a total rent of $514,146 dollars was paid for the period January 2015 to September 2015 for unoccupied premises on Frederick Street, Port of Spain. According to the Auditor General that rental is still alive.

The report also tells of a number of areas of concern, which included matters falling under the expenditure heading of ‘the president’. The report says there were 85 instances of incorrect classification of expenditure totaling over two million dollars in contravention of financial regulation 65.

That stipulates that a vote may not be applied to a purpose for which it was not intended. The report says under the same heading, office furniture and equipment costing $129,818 and items costing over $300,000 sampled from total purchases were not entered in the inventory register.