WHO WILL BELL THE CAT?

Dec 10, 2009 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

At this time of the year, the Peeping Tom column tends to lighten up in keeping with the spirit of the season. This year however there are so many serious issues of national concern that it is difficult to ignore these.
Take for example the value of money audit undertaken by the Attorney General’s Office. The report of the first such audit was presented to the Speaker of the National Assembly the Auditor General. The report dealt with the Palms, a public institution for the indigent.
While I am sure that the audit into the Palms would be most welcome and will help to identify areas of deficiencies, it would be interesting to know why this particular institution was chosen above the many other controversial areas of public expenditure some of which have been highlighted by the media and politicians.
It is not that the Office of the Auditor General has unlimited human resources to conduct value for money audits at every major ministry or public office. The Office of the Auditor General is handicapped by the same human resource constraints that face the government and even the privates sector.
There is thus a limit to the amount of value for money audits which can be conducted and therefore one would have expected that the first call of such audits would have been those public offices which have been the center of controversy.
This newspaper has highlighted many areas in which there is an almost immediate need for such audits. Instead the first audit has been at what one may consider the lowest common denominator and this is why despite its obvious value this start by the Office of the Auditor General was far from encouraging.
The public needs to know whether there has been value for money in the many large public projects which are being undertaken by the administration, especially in those areas where there is no foreign funding. At the minimum one would expect that where foreign funds are concerned, the external funding agencies would carry out their own forensic audits of projects they fund.
In the case of locally funded projects however there is not that external oversight for obvious reasons- there is no external funding agency- and it is these projects for which greater scrutiny. All projects however, both locally and foreign funded should undergo a rigorous value for audit process.
This may increase the project cost but making these audits mandatory for projects over a certain dollar amount may help to improve transparency and accountability and even remove the need for the Auditor General’s Office to carry out value for money audits. This is certainly a proposal for the Public Accounts Committee to take on board at its next meeting.
The Public Accounts Committee needs to be more proactive and undertake its own monitoring of projects while these projects are being undertaken. Waiting until a project is completed before seeking to exercise scrutiny may be too late, because the horse may already have bolted and the evidence of its escape may have been lost since the tracks would have already been covered.
In the meantime, a start has been made. There is a report into the work of a home for the indigent run for the elderly. What will become of the painstaking effort made by the Auditor General’s Office? Will the findings of their audit yield changes that will lead to improvement in the standards at that institution.
More importantly will anyone be held responsible for some of adverse findings at that institution, and how far will the process of holding public officials accountable go? Will there be a few minor changes without touching anyone from the Ministry which has ministerial responsibility for that institution?
Perhaps in his next report, the Auditor General may wish to be precise as to just where he thinks the buck should stop, who should be held the coals and who should bell the cat. For the best way to ensure that the hard work his office put in to carry out that audit at the Palms is to make specific recommendations as to what disciplinary actions need to be taken and who should be responsible for this.

Discover more from Kaieteur News

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Latest News