Serious breaches of the government rules and regulations have been found within the Department of Mechanical, Works and Engineering at the Ministry of Works by the Public Accounts Committee in its scrutiny of the Auditor Generals 2006 report on the Infrastructure Sector.

The Accounts Committee has found that the Department over spent $542, 658 in its operational budget in 2006 and it said the many instances of breaches by the officials reflected poor management practices and total disregard for government rules and regulations.

The Committee notes that overtime within the department were not approved by the Divisional Engineer Central/Eastern but was instead approved by the Section heads only.

It also found that several items were purchased at the end of the year from the Urgent Maintenance vote, but these items remained unused and occupied a lot of storage space.

The Accounts Committee said the Department failed to call for  competitive quotes for 15 goods and supplies, Local Purchase orders were only being issued to one company for electrical services by the garage section and that the department engaged other shipping companies for 12 sea passages for cargoes and freights of workmen, instead of the approved tenders.

It has also been noted that the Senior Accountant and the Divisional Engineer made approvals for purchases beyond their limit and split the LPO's to avoid approval from higher authorities for 29 purchases.
 
The Public Accounts Committee said it has found that a common occurrence throughout the workshops was that workmen were not signing the LPO register when taking various items and those responsible to ensure this is done have not been disciplined but transferred to another section.

The Committee said it is very concerned about the "couldn’t care less attitude" of the department by not taking a sterner measure that would act as a deterrent to reoffend.