The government's Welfare Committee, which is responsible for managing funds for elderly residents and state-run homes, spent the 15 months between March 2022 and July 2023 operating without a bank account, leaving over half a million euros in cheques uncashed.

A National Audit Office report found that a total of €579,589, with €58,868 in cash and the remainder in cheques, were stored in a safe as of 11 July 2023.

Out of those, the NAO found that 450 cheques, amounting to €415,574, were stale - meaning that the cheque had been written too long ago and therefore could not be cashed or deposited.

The NAO also highlighted that the undeposited cheques from January 2021 to June 2023 "were not organized in any specific order."

The report details that prior to the 2022 general elections, and before the cabinet reshuffle, the Welfare Committee fell under the jurisdiction of the Elderly Department within the Ministry for Senior Citizens and Active Ageing.

During this period, contributions from residents at St. Vincent de Paul, Floriana, Mtarfa, and Mosta elderly homes, as well as Mater Dei General Hospital, Gozo General Hospital, and Karin Grech Rehabilitation Hospital, were received in both cash and cheques. These contributions were deposited into a designated below-the-line account.

During the same period the Welfare Committee allocated funds for activities and requirements tailored for the elderly. Any unused amount was carried over from one year to the next. As of February 2022 prior to the post-election Cabinet reshuffle, the remaining balance in this account amounted to €1,023,963.

After the general election in March 2022, the Committee's oversight shifted to the Ministry for Social Policy and Children's Rights which is led by Michael Falzon.  The Committee is chaired by Anthony Scicluna.

Due to these modifications and the implementation of the Corporate Financial Management Solution (CFMS), the Welfare Committee no longer had access to the below-the-line account it had managed since its inception in 1979.

The NAO said that it wasn't clear whether the balance in the account was to be returned to the Welfare Committee, and the Committee itself told the NAO that the balance was "traced" in September 2023 to its original account under the Department for Active Ageing and Community Care and that talks are now underway for how the Committee can regain access to those funds.

In the interim, the NAO observed how "the Committee was operating without a bank account and hence cash and cheques were not being deposited. Neither could direct payments be made by the individuals. This resulted in a significant amount of undeposited cash and cheques received from residents."

The NAO noted that the administrator of the Committee stated that deposits were made "sporadically" until the end of 2022. "Details of what was deposited were written on a manual journal; however, the date of the actual deposits made was not always indicated," the NAO wrote.

From the lists of undeposited cheques, the Committee presented to the NAO in September 2023, it was revealed that 450 cheques, amounting to €415,574, had become stale. These cheques spanned from January 2021 to March 2023.

The Committee told the NAO that a new bank account at the Central Bank of Malta was opened in its name in August 2023 and since " all cash in hand has been duly deposited, taking into account anti-money laundering procedures."

The Administrator has also been instructed to keep the cheques in date order and in line with the relative sequential receipt number, and to deposit the cash and cheques in this account at least on a weekly basis.

The Committee also said that it is committed to reaching out to all those who had sent a cheque to the Committee which has since expired to seek a replacement cheque by the end of March 2024.

The NAO also noted that the last audit completed by the private auditors on the financial statements of the Welfare Committee was that for 2019, and said that it is important that audits are up to date and submitted to the relevant authorities by the deadlines stipulated by law - which is 10 months and 42 days after the end of the financial year.