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Govt. apologizes to Ronald Alli
Government has apologised to Ronald Alli, President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Guyana (ICAG), for naming him as one of the person’s prejudicing investigations into the “conflict of interest” situation between Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh and his wife, Geetanjali Singh, Audit Director of the Audit Office of Guyana.
Dr. Roger Luncheon
This is according to Cabinet Secretary, Dr. Roger Luncheon, who said the inaccuracy of the comment was drawn to his attention by Alli. He was at the time addressing media operatives at his weekly post-Cabinet press briefing at the Office of the President.
Dr. Luncheon said that on October 23 he said that financial analysts, Anand Goolsarran, Christopher Ram and Ronald Alli, had made prejudicial statements about Mrs. Geetanjali Singh’s professionalism in this matter concerning conflict of interest. He said gender discrimination was the motivation for the attack.
As the Audit Director, Mrs. Geetanjali Singh, is tasked with overlooking the audit of entities, including National Industrial and Commercial Investment Limited (NICIL), which is chaired by Dr. Singh.
In an attempt to clarify how Alli was fingered, Dr. Luncheon said Alli did not disassociate himself from the prejudicial remarks made at the MESICIC engagement, Organization of American States anti-corruption body, held in Guyana recently.
“He was present and spoke at the MESICIC engagement…and did not seize the opportunity to disassociate himself or his organization from the prejudicial remarks that my records now show were made by Anand Goolsarran. I undertook to make this correction to Mr. Ronald Ali and me so do,” he said.
Besides being the former Auditor General, Goolsarran is the president of Transparency Institute Guyana Inc. (TIGI).
In 2012, following Mrs. Singh’s appointment, TIGI called on the Head of State to remedy this situation in order to ensure good governance, greater transparency and enhanced accountability.
According to Transparency Institute, the Audit Office is a public office created by the constitution and is mandated to uphold and preserve the highest standards of independence and integrity in the discharge of its constitutional functions.
“As a result of this appointment, a critical role in the oversight of the financial statements of the country has been entrusted to the wife of the person responsible for preparing them. The auditing process by definition requires insulation from the subject of the audit, a consideration which has been completely ignored by this incestuous appointment, which is in turn likely to undermine the effective performance and operation of the Audit Office,” the then President of the TIGI, Attorney-at-Law Gino Peter Persaud noted.
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