THE Guardian Fund, which is administered by the Master of the High Court, currently has N$700 million to administer for about 29 000 beneficiaries, according to Elsie Beukes, Master of the High Court.
‘These funds include estates of children and youths who inherited money and can only access it at the age determined in the will,’ Beukes told The Namibian.The Guardian Fund is once again mentioned in the latest audit report of the Auditor General, who stated that for the ninth consecutive year the Ministry did not provide financial statements of the Guardian Fund.’This state of affairs is unacceptable and it is therefore once again strongly recommended that the accounting officer of the Ministry should endeavour to finalise this issue as a matter of urgency,’ Auditor General Junias Kandjeke wrote. ‘For the ninth consecutive year the Ministry reported they cannot provide the statements. Only 1999-2000 and 2000-01 was completed at the time of writing,’ according to Kandjeke.According to Beukes, however, four financial years have been virtually completed and the records for the years from 2005-06 onwards are almost done. ‘At first we gave the financial statements to the Auditor General’s office to finalise them for us, but we have asked a private company to assist us. We also acquired a bookkeeping computer programme and our staff has completed training because the database and the general ledger with actual payouts must be reconciled.’ Beukes added that her staff is aware how big a responsibility it is to administer the money in the Guardian Fund. ‘In the past few years we have noticed increasing incidents of false ID cards being shown to us when people claim money on behalf of beneficiaries. We introduced the rule that beneficiaries themselves have to come and sign for money they receive from the fund when they reach the determined age.’ The AG’s Office also criticised the staggering sum of N$48,9 million lying in the Magistrate Deposit Account, but the Ministry did not give details where the funds had come from.Another discrepancy was that outstanding advances for travel costs made to civil servants in the Ministry amounted to N$505 568, while a suspense account in the Ministry showed that N$541 892 was still outstanding.’The difference remains to be explained,’ Kandjeke demanded. He quoted the Ministry’s Accounting Officer, who informed Kandjeke that the difference allegedly came about due to a ‘hard-drive failure on the computer used to reconcile the account.’
