The City Council audit must be all embracing

Mar 10, 2017 Letters

Dear Editor,
One should take the recent announcement by the Georgetown Town Clerk of allowing an audit of the Council with cautious sanguinity and hope that it is not just another stunt to pull wool over the eyes of the citizens. In any event, these auditors will have their work cut out for them as the Council is well known for its poor fiscal management, non-adherence to tender procedures and bidding processes, rampant nepotism, cronyism and favoritism, and reckless use of its resources.
A few areas that the auditors should pay attention to include their tax collecting system where an examination should be made of all the persons who were granted tax waivers to determine whether all the persons who enjoyed this largesse were duly authorized and lawfully entitled to do so.
All contracts should be punctiliously examined including the parking meter arrangement, the contracts given to super contractors, and even to some Councillors and their children for cleaning the city, cemetery, desilting of drains and construction works, and for legal and consultancy services.
A careful examination should be done of the Council’s payroll process, to ascertain whether any phantoms exist, to determine the basis on which selective increases were given, to see whether persons are being paid by the Council who no longer work there, or still attached to former officials, to determine whether there are still unpaid loans and advances by officers etc. Also checks should be made of employee deductions and whether they are remitted in a timely manner to agencies such as GRA, NIS, Credit Union etc
Special attention ought to be placed by the auditors on the Council’s procurement processes to determine whether all items purchased and paid for by the Council were indeed received and delivered to the rightful place. The auditors should look warily at the markets’ revenue system to see whether all fees collected are placed in the coffers of Council, and at their assets register to determine the state of their immoveable assets such as land, their equipment, their use of fuel, etc. The audit should read overall forensic audit.
James McOnnell

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