Some 19 years ago recommendations were made by the Auditor General's Department to strengthen the Internal Audit Units within the various ministries and departments but to date nothing has been implemented.
And without proper functioning units accountability and good governance is now almost nonexistent. So said Auditor General Majeed Ali as he and members of the department appeared yesterday before Parliament's Joint Select Committee which was chaired by Bhoe Tewarie.
“This leaves a lot to be desired,” Ali said. The audited public accounts for the year ending September 30, 2015 were examined. Ali, who said those recommendations were made since 1987, added that such units must be the “internal watchdog” of the ministries and departments.
The second area of concern, which was again publically raised, was that $107 million was spent on unoccupied properties over the last six years. He said that was disturbing given the tough economic times, adding that no action had been taken to curb this.
Another challenge was that the department could not access certain information at the Board of Inland Revenue to form an opinion effectively on the completion of revenue figures. The Constitution and the Audit Act clearly define that the department has access to all books and documents of the country's revenue related to public accounts.
“Despite these clear statements, however, it continues to be a case that the Auditor General has very limited access to information at the Board of Inland Revenue and cannot form an opinion on the completeness of the revenue figure,” Ali added.
On measures to improve that Ali said it was critical that the Finance Minister and the Comptroller of Accounts be on board to ensure this exercise was run smoothly. Pressed by Tewarie whether things were being done to ensure that Ali said that was still not the case.
No accountability for furniture and vehicles
There exists no audited records regarding furniture and other items for at least five embassies, including London, Costa Rica, New Delhi and Ottawa.
The issue was raised by member Marlene Mc Donald who said she was appalled that inventory control was not maintained for furniture and fittings. She added: “Several items were not properly intact and these are State items we are dealing with. Pertinent information was not recorded in a number of instances.
“Six completed vehicles log book were not produced for audit examination. At the High Commission in London... documents not produced were the passport registrar... stock up emergency passports, cancelled passports were not produced for audit examination in contravention of financial regulations.”
She said at the Consulate General in Toronto there was no checks and balances over the use of blank cheques.
“In other words expenditure did not exist. The High Commission in Ottawa and Brazil internal controls were also lacking,” Mc Donald said, adding that it was a reflection of poor staff training.
Ali said management letters were sent to the various embassies, agreeing that much more training was needed, including that of preparing a fixed asset registrar.
“These are matters that the Comptroller of Accounts should be dealing with to make sure all these systems were in place because they also visit the embassies to ensure the controls were in place.
“The human resource should be strengthened,” Ali added.
McDonald said the issue could be that of the wrong people performing the wrong jobs.
The committee also heard that the Chief Personnel Officer also had a mandate to conduct human resource audits across all government agencies.