Every year, the Audit Office of Guyana audits public financial records, unearths corruption and makes recommendations so the Government can tighten up the system. As of last year, however, the Office is complaining that many of its recommendations are being ignored.
This is according to its 2018 report, which was presented to Speaker of the National Assembly, Dr Barton Scotland back in October 2019. According to Auditor General Deodat Sharma, a mere 24 per cent of the 454 recommendations made in 2017 were implemented by the Government.
“Each year, my office issues recommendations to Ministries, departments, and regions that are designed at improving systems and practices at these entities and improving the Government’s governance and accountability mechanisms. Four hundred and fifty-four recommendations were made in my 2017 Audit Report.
“We reviewed each recommendation to determine what action, if any, was taken by the respective Accounting Officers. At the time of reporting in September 2019, 110 or 24 per cent were fully implemented, 116 or 26 per cent were partially implemented, while 228 or 50 per cent were not implemented.”
The Auditor General expressed concern over what he called the lack of action towards the implementation of the recommendations. According to him, it means that 76 per cent of his office’s recommendations were not fully implemented. Sharma noted that this was a yearly occurrence.
“In many instances, recommendations are repeated each year without appropriate action and as a result, weaknesses and issues that impacted negatively on Government’s governance and accountability mechanisms continue to occur.
“Once again, I encourage the Government, through the Ministry of Finance, the Accountant General’s Department and the respective Heads of Budget Agencies to take appropriate actions and put measures in place to address these recommendations,” he added.
Some of the annual issues on which the Audit Office has been providing advice over the years include overpayments. For 2018, however, the AG found that the trend of overpayments continued unabated.
This time, the Government was flagged for overpaying some G$166 million of taxpayer dollars in contracts. According to the Audit Report, a number of Ministries, departments and regions were guilty of this practice.
For instance, various Ministries and departments overpaid contractors as much as G$92.3 million. The Public Infrastructure Ministry, according to the report, accounted for G$63.7 million. Meanwhile, G$73.7 million was overpaid by regional administrations. Regions Two, Eight, Nine and 10 were responsible for 70 per cent of this sum.
There is some good news, however. Auditor General Sharma notes in the report that as of September 2019, G$20 million was recovered. This, therefore, leaves G$146 million outstanding.
The AG also experienced some difficulties in his audit, as some G$800 million in payment vouchers were not presented to his auditors. The report states that this sum is equivalent to 582 vouchers. The Ministries of the Presidency and Natural Resources were among those culpable.
The AG notes that as a result, the Audit Office could not ascertain whether the money was used for the intended purpose.
