2022 Audit Report: “We see the Audit Report as a tool for management” – Jagdeo

…says Finance Minister to take corrective action on adverse findings

Adverse findings flagged in the 2022 Audit Report will be handled through corrective action from Senior Minister within the Office of the President with Responsibility for Finance, Dr Ashni Singh.
This was outlined by Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo on Thursday, who identified the report as an important instrument for proper management of the country.
Jagdeo disclosed, “I spoke with the Minister of Finance. He has assured that he is going to personally take corrective action against any adverse finding. We see the Audit Report as a tool for management and that’s how we’re approaching it.”
Government is also considering Audit Reports from under the former A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) coalition administration, which spanned 2015 to 2020, in which glaring findings were not addressed.
He commented, “In the five years of APNU, none were considered. They didn’t even touch the Audit Reports and they didn’t meet the light of day…We don’t approach it this way. We will take corrective action.”
One such instance is from the D’Urban Park project, where over $600 million was reported missing. Contained in the 2020 report were findings of a special audit conducted into the project since 2018, showing that $1.1 billion was spent. Even then, payment vouchers to account for how millions were spent were not provided to the auditors.
Another case of missing funds is for the purchase of tickets for concerts under the coalition.
It was reported last year that the Audit Office of Guyana (AOG), via the annual Auditor General Reports, had red-flagged more than 500 breaches of various laws between the years 2015 and 2018, most of which occurred while the APNU/AFC Government was in power.
Governance and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Gail Teixeira had cited a summary of the various breaches to laws such as the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act (FMAA); the Procurement Act and the Stores Regulations of 1993.

Improvements
Strides have been made to take action on the current Government’s end, in securing and protecting the interest of the country. It was reported that overpayments on contracts, which have been a sore issue for years for successive reports, saw a drastic change this year. Auditor General Deodat Sharma indicated in his 2022 report that the Government was able to recover over $50 million in overpayments, without dispute – a first in Guyana’s history. In previous Auditor General Reports, issues such as overpayment to contractors and breaches to the country’s financial laws were flagged.
In the 2021 Auditor General Report, the Audit Office noted that over 70 per cent of recommendations that were made the previous year were implemented by the PPP/C Government.
Back in 2020, 548 recommendations were made. According to the 2021 Auditor General Report, 397 or 72 per cent of these recommendations have since been fully implemented.
Meanwhile, 92, or 17 per cent of these recommendations were partially implemented, and 59 or 11 per cent were not implemented at all. It is a dramatic improvement in comparison with 2020, where only 38 per cent of the prior year’s recommendations were fully implemented.
In the 2019 report, a mere 17 per cent of prior years’ recommendations were fully implemented. Auditor General Sharma also had cause to complain that a mere 24 per cent of the 454 recommendations made in 2017 were implemented by the then APNU/AFC Government.
The Audit Act prescribes that, “The Auditor General shall report at least annually, and within nine months of each fiscal year, on the results of his audit of the consolidated financial statements and the accounts of budget agencies in relation to that fiscal year.”
During the course of the year, the AG can also conduct special audits at his discretion and prepare special reports. (G12)