Auditor General’s 2006 Report… Document is evidence of massive wrongdoing

Auditor General’s 2006 Report… Document is evidence of massive wrongdoing – AFC

Aug 19, 2008 News

The Auditor General’s Report for 2006 has vindicated the position of the Alliance For Change (AFC) as it relates to discrepancies at Government ministries and departments, according to Chairman of the Alliance, Khemraj Ramjattan, Speaking yesterday, Ramjattan noted that, in a functioning democracy, ministers admitting to breach of procedures would have tendered their resignations, but it appears that is not the case in Guyana.
He noted that the evidence of the wrongdoing was explicit in the 2006 report.

The AFC Chairman also lamented the fact that the several pieces of legislation in place to ensure accountability appear to be merely for the international community, given that they are not adhered to.

Some of the discrepancies referred to are: non-adherence to procedures, un-reconciled bank accounts, and overpayments to contractors.

The Auditor General’s Report for 2006 highlighted breaches of the Procurement Act as well as the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act.

Ramjattan made a plea for the Audit Office to be outfitted with its full staff complement. He also called for the appointment of Deodat Sharma to the substantive post of Auditor General, rather than to have him remain as acting.

According to the report, presented to the National Assembly by the Auditor General, the Contingencies Fund continued to be abused, with amounts drawn from the fund being utilised to meet expenditure that did not meet the eligibility criteria as defined in the Act.

“According to the Statement, amounts totalling $3.945 billion were drawn from the fund by way of 138 advances….As at 31 December 2006, forty-nine of these advances, totalling $1.721 billion, remained outstanding.”

In relation to the Customs and Trade Administration, the Auditor General noted seventeen Permits for Immediate Delivery (PID), with a total value of $2.832 billion, had not yet been perfected at the time of the audit in January 2007.

Incoming vessels at ports in Guyana totalled 1,089. However, completed ships’ files in respect of 243 ships were not submitted to the Quality Review Section, and as such were not made available for audit examination.

It was also noted in the report that several ministries and departments recorded overstatements on their appropriation accounts, and the unspent amounts have not been refunded, “…Subvention agencies not returning the unspent portions of amounts paid over to them for specific expenditure.”

The Auditor General also cited in his report what he called the overpayment of contracts. “Several ministries and regions have not recovered amounts overpaid on various contracts in prior periods….In addition, some of these ministries and regions, such as Education, Amerindian Affairs, Regions Two, Three, Six, Seven and 10, continued to have overpayments on various contracts during 2006…One such example was recorded under the Ministry of Education, where $10.982M was overpaid on eleven projects which were mainly for the rehabilitation and extension to schools.”

But Finance Minister Ashni Singh, in a recent interview with this newspaper, said that it was regrettable that, in some instances, the Auditor General’s Report did not in every case reflect the explanations that would have been proffered by the various Government ministries and departments.

The Auditor General is required by law to have included in the report explanations for issues that raised an eyebrow.

“I would say that, in the overwhelming majority of instances, the issues that have been reported by the Auditor General have explanations that in many cases would have been offered by the respective Government ministries and departments.”

The Finance Minister also stated that what was also regrettable was that some of the issues were being highlighted sensationally in the media, when, in fact, if one were to understand and examine them properly, one would see that there is no question of impropriety at all.