Glenn Lall’s file said to be in audit office

Mar 21, 2009 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Last year, following this newspaper’s expose of the Sanata deal, this newspaper received word that our coverage of this deal had angered powerful persons in this country. We learnt from a source that it was said at a meeting that plans would have to be devised to deal with the Kaieteur News.
Upon learning of this we immediately made this threat public. We believed that this threat would not go away and that one day the hammer would fall on this newspaper.
We have repeated the threat to find ways to deal with Kaieteur News over the past months in a front page comment and in this column. And while we did not expect the threat to evaporate, we find it strangely coincidental that just as we are investigating a report about a major ally of the PPP having huge sums tied up in CLICO (Guyana), word has come to us also of an even more worrying development which we believe has implications for every citizen of this country.
We have received word from an extremely reliable source that the tax file of the publisher of this newspaper or a copy of contents of that file is now in the Audit Office or what is known as the Office of the Auditor General.
We find this extremely worrying on a number of counts. For one, the Audit Office is empowered by our audit laws to pronounce on the accounts of government agencies. We are not aware of why the confidential contents of the tax file of a private citizen should be in the Audit Office.
Section 4 of the Financial Administration and Audit Act of 2004 provides that the Auditor General shall be the external auditor of the public accounts of Guyana and in the discharge of his functions, shall have complete discretion in examining and reporting on the receipt, disbursement and control of public monies and on the economy, efficiency and effectiveness in the use of these funds.
The website of the Audit Office confirms that the role of the office is restricted to the audit of public accounts. It states that the main role of the office is to Audit the accounts of all public agencies, ministries and other government bodies.
Section 24 of the Audit Act gives two general types of audits which are required to be conducted by the Audit Office. The first is the financial and compliance audit, and the second is performance and value of money audits. These audits are to be done on public accounts and specifically on the consolidated financial statements, the accounts of all Budget agencies, the accounts of all local government bodies and entities in which the State has a controlling interest; and the accounts of all projects funded by way of loans or grants by any foreign state or organisation.
Kaieteur News does not fall into any of these categories. What then are the contents or copy of the file of a private citizen doing in the Audit Office? Just how did this file get there?
This newspaper confronted a senior officer in the Audit Office on the allegations that the file of this publisher of this newspaper was in the Audit Office. While the senior official neither confirmed nor denied that the file is within the Audit office, the official gave out a huge laugh and indicated that the Audit Office can investigate matters relating to public officers.
Glenn Lall, however, is not a public officer and the contents of his income tax file ought not to be examined by the Audit Office. The Audit Office has no business examining the private accounts of any citizen. This is a task for the taxman.
This column is therefore calling for the Audit Office to issue a statement confirming whether it is in possession of the personal tax file of the publisher of this newspaper and at the same time to explain if there is any basis for the Audit Office to be examining the personal tax files of any citizen be that citizen a publisher of a newspaper or a politician.
In the context of the criticisms which were leveled recently at the Audit Office for its involvement in a multi-agency investigation commissioned by the President of Guyana, the Audit Office should reaffirm in that statement its commitment to being independent of executive and political directives since, as a constitutional office, it is supposed to free of such direction or influence.
It would be extremely reassuring to the people of Guyana who are fearful of executive incursions into the work of constitutional bodies to know that there is no political meddling in the work of the Audit Office.

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