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Greenidge forced to withdraw motion on financial autonomy of Audit Office

Jun 15, 2012 News

By Gary Eleazar

A Partnership for National Unity (APNU)’s Carl Greenidge was forced, on Wednesday night, to withdraw his motion seeking financial autonomy for the Audit Office of Guyana, after the Minister of Finance Dr. Ashni Singh, pre-empted the demand.
Greenidge did confuse some in the House when he spoke to the motion on the financial independence of several service commissions.
During the course of that debate – which saw the House approving financial autonomy for the Judicial, Police, Teaching Service and Public Service Commissions – the APNU parliamentarian continuously referred to the motion on the Audit Office and its objectives in the past tense. This was despite the fact that the motion had not been called up for debate.
It was at the time of the debate on the substantive motion on the Audit Office, and the manner in which that body receives its money to conduct its functions, that Greenidge confirmed in the House that the Finance Minister had pre-empted his demand.
Dr. Ashni Singh exercising his powers as Finance Minister at the time of the presentation of the Budget, had laid an order allowing for the Audit Office to draw its money directly from the Consolidated Fund en bloc, on the very day that Greenidge’s motion was originally tabled.
This would allow the Head of that Agency (which in this case is Auditor General (ag) Deodat Sharma) to determine how the resources are allocated to the Audit Office.
The debates that followed the 2012 presentation of the estimates are believed to be responsible for overshadowing the order made by the Minister, which caused Greenidge to backpedal on seeking Parliamentary intervention.
Greenidge’s motion had sought to call on the House to resolve to: “remove the Audit Office from the Schedule of Budget Agencies and restore it to its rightful place as an autonomous agency drawing directly on the Consolidated Fund and that these changes be reflected in the Annual Estimates to be submitted by the Minister of Finance for the approval of this.”
The APNU MPs course of action was premised on what he calls a legislative obligation “that the Auditor General shall act independently in the discharge of his functions.”
The Opposition has for several years called the manner of allocating monies to the Audit Office as a subvention agency, a mechanism to curtail its function and independence.
The Audit Office of Guyana scrutinizes the expenditure of public funds on behalf of Parliament. It conducts financial audits of all publicly-funded entities, including donor-funded entities, local government agencies and trade unions.

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