ANOTHER DISTURBING AUDITOR GENERAL REPORT

Nov 15, 2017 Editorial

For years, Auditor General Deodat Sharma has on numerous occasions exposed massive irregularities at various government departments and state agencies, especially the misuse of state funds by public officials or overpayments on public contracts.
In almost all of his reports, the Auditor General has highlighted shoddy work by contractors and gross incompetency on the part of government officials to adequately monitor the contracts awarded to contractors.
As the guardian of the public purse, the Audit Office is a body that is independent and free from political interference, and must be given the resources necessary to effectively carry out its functions. Its primary role is to scrutinize the performance of governments as to how they spend the people’s money by directly examining the various ministries and state agencies to ensure that governmental activities are carried out in a manner consistent with the intentions of Parliament, and are effective, efficient and economical.
In his 2016 report, the Auditor General has flayed the government for spending some $700 million from the Contingencies Fund to meet routine expenses, which has violated the laws and spirit of the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act (FMAA). The Act provides for advances from the Contingencies Fund to be used only to meet unavoidable and unforeseen emergency expenditures for which no moneys have been appropriated or for which the sum appropriated is insufficient. According to the Auditor General, the government has failed to comply with the requirements of the FMAA.
While this is of concern to the public, there has been no redemption or any effort by the government to make changes. Instead, the Minister of Finance has challenged the Auditor General’s report in regards of the abuse of the Contingencies Fund. The Minister has stated that the Constitution deems him as the sole individual to determine emergencies for which advances can be obtained from the Contingencies Fund.
In another report, the Auditor General expressed concern and disappointment over the abuse of public funds and the massive irregularities at the Guyana Election Commission (GECOM).The Auditor General disclosed that in 2014, GECOM officials spent millions of dollars to purchase toners for photocopiers and printers, $100 million on obsolete communications radio sets, and more than $92 million on items like batteries, nippers and stationery in preparation for the 2015 election.
As reported in this newspaper, GECOM did not only deliberately order far more paraphernalia than it needed, but there were serious procurement breaches, as it sought approval from the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board only after the orders were placed.
Other reports by the Auditor General have pointed to gross misuse of a special project account held by the Ministry of Education, into which funds from various sources were placed.
The reports also found that the government acted on less than half of the more than 400 crucial recommendations made by the Auditor General in his 2015 report to improve transparency, accountability and efficiency, and to have proper mechanisms in place so as to prevent overpayments to contractors, and to ensure that the taxpayers’ money is spent wisely and appropriately. This lack of action by the government has impacted negatively on good governance.
The Auditor General’s reports have not only rebuked the Granger government and its immediate predecessors, but they also reveal the uncontrollable and relentless spending of public funds. This suggests that the current government is not preserving the nation’s purse as it had promised. This blatant misuse of state funds, which was prevalent under the last administration for over a decade, has continued unabated under this government which had promised to be transparent and accountable. While no disciplinary action has been meted out to any individuals in the last administration, so far, only a few individuals who have been alleged to be involved in corruption have been prosecuted by this government.

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