Beneficiaries may have been denied rights: Report

BENEFICIARIES of accounts of deceased individuals may have been denied their rights to have access to the funds totalling more than K17 million, according to the 2015 Auditor-General’s report.
The report, which was tabled in Parliament last week, said the Public Curator’s Office had over the years not properly performed its bank and estate account reconciliations.
The suspense account referred to is a clearing account maintained to keep track of proceeds from deceased individuals and transfers between various estate accounts pending reconciliation, proper identification and allocation to their respective estate accounts.
“However, I noted that proper, accurate and timely reconciliations were not done in prior years to allocate these funds to their respective estate accounts,” Auditor-General Philip Nauga said in the report.
“Further, I noted that there was a reduction of K202,502 during 2012 from the 2011 balance, but I was not provided with the supporting documents for this movement.
“As a result, the balance in the suspense account continues to remain high over the years at K17,751,128 as at Dec 31, 2012.
“Consequently, the beneficiaries to these estate accounts may have been denied of their rights to have access to these accounts.”
Nauga said the corporate trust bank account of the Public Curator was credited with an unidentified deposit of K227,244 in May 2010, and the office was yet to identify where the deposit was made from and if the money was not intended for this account.
He said he noted a list of unrealized and personal properties that were identified or in possession of and administered by the Public Curator’s office. “I noted that these properties were not valued of and disclosed by way of notes to the financial statements, as the proceeds from the disposal of these assets would be properly identified and credited to their respected estate accounts or transferred (non-liquid form) to the beneficiaries at a later date,” Nauga said.
“As a result, I was unable to satisfy myself as to the completeness or accuracy of receipts of K18,583,696.75 and the amounts due to the estate of K3,323,752.17 as disclosed in the financial statements.”