Real, probing audits are needed

Jul 14, 2022 Editorial

Kaieteur News – Huge amounts of money are being spent by this PPP/C Government on a slew of projects, and many more ‘one-offs.’ Where these increasing ‘one-offs’ are concerned, cash is usually what is distributed by the government to citizens, who are struggling to cope with great financial difficulties in one area after another. The areas might be geographical as in a hard-hit Administrative Region, or sectoral such as fishing or sugar, as we have seen. Billions on billions have been delivered to those needing a timely hand, and for the most part in cash.

Because of these developments involving actual cash for citizens, or numerous contracts for massive developmental or remedial public service projects, the need for auditors, audits, and proper practices in this always highly valued fields takes on newer and higher dimensions. We must not only have timely audits of monies spent by whatever means, but with a sharper eye on cash distributions. Therefore, it is compulsory that this country has the kind of audits that bring high comfort because they are deep, expert, on the ball, and reliable. In other words, they present a solid picture of what is really happening with our cash distributions and big-ticket projects, all numbering in the billions of taxpayers’ dollars.

As more and more money is spent, and in the swiftest fashion, more and more citizens are calling for and waiting for audits to be conducted of what was undertaken, and what was spent. It is to ensure that there is proper accounting, meaning that the books are in order, and that procedures have been followed, with comprehensive reports following, and people being held accountable, if such becomes necessary.

We at this publication say these are good things, and for the right purposes, which is why we agree with watchfulness and waiting for the appropriate audits to be done. It is mandatory, however, that once audits are initiated that they are credible, as in they are trustworthy because the Guyanese people, those actually footing all these billion-dollar spendings, are due real value for the monies spent in their name.

It is the horrible experience of the people in this country that quite a few of their public institutions are now looked upon with scorn and an almost total lack of confidence. They are a far cry from what they were in days now gone, when many of them were looked up to as fountains of trust. It was because the people in them, from those in charge to the clerks at the bottom, conducted themselves in a way that demanded respect, and it was by doing their duty honestly and consistently. Their works, in the sum of output, spoke for them.

But, as we all know now, what we live with today is where citizens dread having to visit and do business, any kind of business, with institutions of the State. Much of the blame has been placed on the heads of our politicians, who have used the public service and its people for their own purposes, usually not constructive or clean. All governments have displayed these discreditable habits, and most leaders have interfered with the free flow of honest practices, lawful practices.

Many citizens are disgusted at how the State media has been transformed, with even private media compromised. Daily experiences and whispers about the Guyana Police Force confirm the worst is harboured in the minds of many who have had to deal with its ranks. The conviction is that the higher one goes, the more costly the price that has to be paid. And when Guyanese examine the record of their Environmental Protection Agency, it stands as a curse on this nation, given what our political leaders have done to it, the feebleness to which it has been reduced.

It is with these contexts in mind that we weigh the call and need for timely and through audits of all this spending of enormous amounts of money, lots of it in cash. We want audits, we press for them, but we must have good ones, the best ones possible, which must turnover stones and expose wrongdoings, where such exist. Our auditors have much on their hands, they must deliver most professionally.

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Real, probing audits are needed

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