Auditor General Report on City Hall completed

Dec 13, 2019 News

The Auditor General Report into the operations of the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) of Georgetown has been completed.
City Mayor Ubraj Narine confirmed that the audit which has been ongoing for several months now, has reached the Council for final input.
The Mayor noted that the Auditor General had written to the Council to have an input before the file is handed over to the Local Government Commission (LGC).
Although the Mayor did not go into the details of the report, this newspaper has learnt that among the issues being queried are millions of dollars which went unaccounted for at City Hall.
The information relates to the $200 million that was transferred to the M&CC for the restoration of Georgetown by December 31, 2016. The Council reported that capital works had spent $131.382 million on five projects, and $42.123 million for the purchase of office equipment and furniture – a total of $173.505 million.
Auditor General Deodat Sharma had previously reported that the payment vouchers and other related documents were not presented for audit examination.
“We are not getting information since last year to now. I don’t want to preempt, so when we go in there, we are going to look at whatever they give us and then make a pronouncement,” said the AG in the report
Other projects assessed included Constabulary Training School $23.096 million; City Engineers building $13.594 million; Constabulary Headquarters building $12.921 million; Kitty Market: $60.121 million and the Albouystown Clinic $21.580 million.
The forensic audit was ordered as part of the implementation of the recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry (COI) into City Hall last year.
On November 30, last year, the CoI report was handed over by lone Commissioner Justice Cecil Kennard (ret’d) to Chairman of the LGC, Mortimer Mingo.
The report had called for several senior officers to be terminated for their poor management of the affairs of the city; and that where irregularities are found, criminal investigation and charges be laid against defaulting officers.

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