Auditor-General Report on to be made public tomorrow

Jan 21, 2009 News

Polar beer scam…

By Tusika Martin

The Auditor-General Report on the Fidelity Investment corruption probe, in which Customs officers were fingered, will be tabled in Parliament tomorrow.
Whilst the Act within the Constitution governing such reports states that the Auditor-General should present the report to the Speaker of the National Assembly, President Bharrat Jagdeo said that in this particular instance it’s a different scenario.
Speaking with the media during a press conference on Monday, the Head of State said that this report is a ‘little bit’ different from the audit of the country’s accounts, since it was the Executive that commissioned it.
He said that the report was discussed in Cabinet on Monday last, and will be tabled by Minister of Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh.
“I told the Minister of Finance to table the report because the Executive commissioned the report…the Executive called in the Auditor General and the report was presented to me,” the Head of State said.
He added that he is not going to make a ‘big issue’ of interpretation of the law, just as long as his purpose is served.
“I want this report to see the light of the day, and I want it to be tabled in Parliament, so I am not going to get into a controversy or a debate as to who should do this,” he said, when the media enquired about the legality of the report.
During his first press conference for the year, President Jagdeo had called for investigations into assets of corrupt Customs officers.
According to the Head of State, the AG Report was missing a crucial term of reference that he had required, in that he wanted the assets of the delinquent officers assessed.
He told media operatives that he was advised that the Attorney-General, Deodat Sharma, was of the view that another agency should be responsible for the assessment of the assets of Customs officers.
The President was adamant that “it is one thing to look at the current incident, but when you look at assets and how the assets accumulate,” then that is a whole other issue.
He said that if people were not able to properly account “for their assets, then they have a lot to answer for”.
The President was insistent that the assets analysis’ component of the investigation be fulfilled.
President Jagdeo pointed to the fact that if the capability was not available locally, then the audit office should seek external assistance and the Government would foot the bill.
Several Customs officers and other employees of the GRA were sent on administrative leave early last year.
They will know their fate as soon as the DPP makes the appropriate recommendations.
Five of the employees who were sent on leave were dismissed during the investigations ordered by President Bharrat Jagdeo.
Whether Fidelity Investments also will be charged depends on what advice the DPP proffers.
The multi-agency investigation was launched in light of possible fraud of Government revenues by Customs officers and Fidelity Investments, agent for Venezuelan Polar beer.
GRA staffers were questioned about containers imported by Fidelity Investments and Kong Inc, a subsidiary, importers of Venezuela’s Polar beer.
It is believed that the containers which came in were filled with Polar beer, but the GRA officers, including members of the Internal Affairs, Enforcement, VAT, and Customs, allegedly colluded to forge documents to show, instead, that there were soft drinks in the containers.

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Auditor-General Report on to be made public tomorrow

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