Sharma vs. Sharma… Govt. upset over leak of Auditor General report

Jan 07, 2020 News

– $250M in fuel cannot be verified

The Coalition Government has expressed concern that the Auditor General report of 2018 has been leaked.

Auditor General, Deodat Sharma, handing over the report to the Speaker of the House, Dr. Barton Scotland.

The report was handed over to the Speaker of the National Assembly, Dr. Barton Scotland, late last year and was supposed to have been laid in during one of the sittings so that it will become public.
However, there have been no sittings of the National Assembly as a result of the political situation stemming from the December 21, 2018 no-confidence motion.
The report to the Speaker was supposed to have been placed under lock and key. However, over the weekend, a copy of the report surfaced.
Excerpts of the reports have been published in a number of newspapers, including Kaieteur News, and online.
Yesterday, Minister with the Ministry of Public Infrastructure, Jaipaul Sharma, in a sharp rebuke, was critical of the Auditor General, Deodat Sharma.
“The Auditor General needs to explain how is it that the 2018 Auditor General Report that is not yet a public document is being used by some for electioneering purposes to highlight the negative findings of the Auditor General on government projects.”
The report itself has revealed that over $800M in payment vouchers from ministries and other state entities were not produced to state auditors for verification.
Auditors found some other problems. Employment costs were over-budgeted for 2018.
“In this regard, the 10 administrative regions expenditure amounted to $17.088 billion for 13,112 staff. According to the National Estimates, the total funds available under employment costs totaled $17.109 billion for a staff complement of 12,211. This represents 901 staff more than was budgeted for and $21.830M under the budgeted expenditure.”
Auditors also found that Regions One, Eight and Nine continued to have severe shortcomings with respect to the purchase, reconciliation and storage of fuel.
“In this regard, sums of $163.673M, $62.455M and $46.399M respectively were expended for these regions, with Regions One and Nine purchasing fuel in excess of their storage capacity, and Region Eight purchasing fuel on a credit basis.”
In addition, the report disclosed, balances to reflect fuel on hand, reconciliations of payments made against the fuel and lubricants received, and inadequate stores records impeded the verification of the accuracy of the amounts expended.”