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AG now cannot audit Health Ministry
…records will take several years to reconstruct
The recent fire at the Ministry of Health has destroyed the financial records and has now rendered the Audit Office of Guyana incapable of auditing the Ministry for the period January 2008 to the time of the fire.
This is according to the Auditor General (acting) of Guyana, Deodat Sharma, who said that there is the possibility of reconstructing the records but this would be a tedious process and will take several years to achieve.
Deodat Sharma
The Health Ministry had come in for serious criticism over the years for the management of its accounts as well as the manner in which the ministry spent billions of dollars for the procurement of drugs and medical supplies.
The buildings that were destroyed in last Friday’s inferno housed all the records of the Ministry and the health centres, the Accounts Department, the Disease Control Unit and the Registry, as well as the records for the pharmacies and medical professionals.
The buildings also housed records of every local medical professional in Guyana.
At about 3:00hrs on Friday last, “three loud cracking” sounds awoke residents in Hadfield Street and when they looked outside they saw “fire and smoke coming from the top western section” of the Health Ministry’s building.
The fire service was summoned. Witnesses said that they arrived less than ten minutes after the first call, but by then the fire was raging throughout the main building, which was a national heritage site.
Persons in night attire flocked the scene from all locations and some lent physical support to the fire fighting.
Health Minister, Dr Leslie Ramsammy, told media operatives, “this is an unfortunate loss”, one resident said from a heritage stand point, but commended the fire service for containing the fire to the one building.
As he watched his office burn from the Hadfield Street entrance, Dr Ramsammy fought back tears. He said that the building housed a lot of irreplaceable records and documents.
He expressed disappointment that there have been some erroneous statements made about the cause of the fire.
“This is not the time for us to manufacture stories. Any kind of implication that the Ministry of Health wanted to destroy its records is pure mischievousness.”
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