Pres. Ali to unveil real-time audit system

Nov 16, 2025 News

---

…as opposition slams gov’t on fiscal management

(Kaieteur News) – President Irfaan Ali on Saturday announced a sweeping upgrade to government oversight: a new real-time audit system designed to monitor projects, spending, and overpayments as they happen. The announcement came as he rebutted accusations by A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), which claimed the 2024 Auditor General’s report exposes poor fiscal management.

President Ali dismissed the claims, arguing the report instead shows “significant improvement” in transparency and accountability. He noted that 81% of 2023 audit recommendations were fully or partially implemented, compared to the APNU/AFC’s 2015-2019 term, when 83% of recommendations went unimplemented.

President Ali made the comments on a live Facebook broadcast, which was flooded with Guyanese in the comment section, eager for an announcement on the cash grant, promised by the government ahead of the Christmas season. To the disappointment of some, the President addressed findings and conclusions of the AG, Deodat Sharma which indicate a decline in issues relating to transparency and public accountability.

The President argued that the APNU representatives ignored the report which highlights approximately 81% of the recommendations in 2023 were fully or partially implemented. He said, “This is a marked increase over the APNU/AFC term in office which was between 2015 and 2019 where most of the recommendations remained unimplemented year after year, prompting repeated warnings.”

Ali quoted a section of the AG report which cited concern over the lack of implementation of the recommendations, as 83% were not fully implemented at the time. The President said that under his leadership, there has been an aggressive push to implement recommendations by the AG and proactively address issues.

“Because of our approach, the Auditor General had no reason to warn the government about the poor implementation of recommendations from prior years, in reports from 2020 to 2024, demonstrating our resolve to act on audit findings and uphold the principles of transparency and the rule of law,” he stated.

President Ali pointed out that accounting officers have already begun implementing recommendations in the 2024 AG report, but further to that, the government has made other notable achievements. According to him, “From 2022 onwards, 100% of overpayments detected during audits were fully recovered before the audit report was finalized.” He was keen to point out that over 70% of overpayments under the previous Coalition administration were never recovered.

The President boasted that although government’s spending increased rapidly, overpayments were less than 3% in 2023 and 2024, reflective of the training provided to public sector employees.

He announced, “In the near future, the government plans to address this issue by deploying appropriate technology to allow for real-time project management and auditing. This solution has already been successfully tested across several initiatives, including the World Bank project and is slated for broader implementation.”

To this end, he clarified, “We are going to move to a system whereby we will have real-time audits of projects, project financing and disbursements so that even during the project cycle and during implementation, we can see where overpayments are being made and have those adjustments within the project itself…using technology, AI and predictive indicators.”

With regard to the 20% of recommendations not implemented by the PPP during the period 2020-2022, the president said efforts are being made to reduce this number in the years ahead. Shifting his attention to overpayments, the President said, “During 2024, the audit office continued its rigorous oversight of government operation by reviewing 829 contracts totaling close to $50B. Of these contracts, less than 3% were cited for overpayments. All overpayments in 2024 were fully recovered before the auditor general report was finalised. This marks the third consecutive year that overpayments were recovered before the finalization of the auditor general’s report- an unprecedented occurrence.”

Additionally, Ali noted that 34 audits of foreign funded projects were conducted with no material findings of irregularities. He said 19 of the audit opinions were issued by 12 constitutional agencies. Furthermore, the audit cover expanded to public enterprises and statutory bodies, reflecting the highest level of institutional oversight in recent years, according to the president.

With regard to breaches in the procurement act and regulations, Ali highlighted the marked reduction reported by the AG, while breaches to the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act also declined. There was also improvement in agencies resolving queries before the finalisation of the AG report. The President noted, “452 or 70.5% of the queries in the management letters sent to the agencies were resolved during the period they were given to respond to the audit office.”

To this end, he concluded that there has been notable improvement in transparency, accountability, good governance and financial performance between the period 2020 and 2024. He said the government is still not satisfied and will be issuing performance indicators for Permanent Secretaries and other heads of agencies to be measured to ensure implementation of recommendations and compliance with financial regulations.

---

• AG Report, audits, Government, President Ali, real-time

---