Auditor General’s Report 2024: Consequences for accounting officers who fail to comply with recommendations – Pres Ali

…as Govt to conduct real-time audit of projects

Highlighting that the Peoples Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) Administration has been the most compliant with recommendations from Auditor General (AG) Reports over the years, President Dr Irfaan Ali on Saturday announced that his Government will continue to roll out systems to ensure there is complete accountability and transparency in the handling of monies from the public purse.
He made the commitment during a live broadcast from his Facebook page on Saturday, as he responded to discourse in the public domain over the AG’s Report 2024.
President Ali explained that while the report flags a number of issues that have consistently plagued the Government’s management of taxpayers’ dollars – such as overpayments – the PPP/C has been the most compliant with the respective laws and regulations that govern public spending.
“The Auditor General Report of 2024 points to a decline in issues relating to transparency and public accountability. It points to marked improvement, especially when compared to the period 2015 to 2020,” he noted.
“The Auditor General reported that approximately 81 per cent of the recommendations made in 2023 were fully or partially implemented. This is a marked improvement 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 from the Auditor General,” he further noted.
The President explained that not only has the PPP/C been aggressively implementing the AG’s recommendations from prior years, but it has also been proactively addressing issues as they are detected, rather than waiting until the end of the fiscal year to address them.
“As we speak, the accounting officers have begun implementing the recommendations of the 2024 report, and the Government has given them a directive that if accounting officers do not implement fully the recommendations of the 2024 report, that there will be consequences,” President Ali warned.

Improvements
Beyond the enhanced implementation rate of recommendations, the Head of State pointed out that there have been other notable improvements in the AG’s Reports over the past four years.
For example, from 2022 onwards, he said 100 per cent of overpayments detected during audits were fully recovered before the audit report was finalised.
“This must be compared with the APNU+AFC tenure, where more than 70 per cent of overpayments were never recovered,” the President stated.
“Meanwhile, overpayments were less than 3 per cent of contracts reviewed in 2023 and 2024, even though Government spending has increased rapidly. This improvement is partially due to the training provided to officers in the public sector related to issues such as contract management, procurement and valuation of work,” he further noted.
The President explained that for 2024, all overpayments were fully recovered before the report was finalised.
“This marks the third consecutive year that overpayments were recovered before the finalisation of the Audit Report, an unprecedented occurrence,” he noted, as he contrasted it with the record under the APNU+AFC.
“In 2017, for example, you had only 29.7 per cent of overpayment recovered. In 2015, only 7.49 per cent of overpayment recovered. In 2018, only 12.1 per cent of overpayment recovered. And then in the last three years, 2022, 2023 and 2024, 100 per cent of overpayment recovered,” he outlined.

Real-time tracking system
Moreover, to ensure issues such as overpayments are eliminated, the Head of State revealed plans to introduce a real-time tracking system.
“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 broad implementation,” he said.
“We are going to move to a system whereby we will have real-time audits of projects, project financing and disbursement, 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. We are going into full-scale project accounting as part of the project implementation framework, using technology, AI and predictive indicators,” he added.
President Ali also highlighted that during the fiscal year 2024, the Government worked with the AG and contracted auditors to advance its commitment to transparency and accountability by bringing the audited accounts of public enterprises, statutory bodies, trade unions, NDCs, foreign-funded projects and constitutional agencies up to date.
“During the 2024 fiscal year, more than 254 audit opinions were issued for these agencies. This marked the third highest number of audit opinions issued since 2015 and underscores the significant progress made by the Government in expanding audit coverage. If you look at the number, you will see in 2015, we had 116. In 2016, 96. In 2024, 254 opinions were given by the Auditor General and contracted auditors. This is because more of the agencies are being audited and are coming into real time,” he posited.

Reductions in procurement breaches
The Head of State also pointed out that the Audit Office noted that there was a marked reduction in procurement breaches, as reflected by the number of recommendations issued by the AG to address this issue.
“The number of procurement breaches during 2023 was lower than the previous year and the five years the APNU+AFC was in office. There are some agencies that we are paying particular attention to that must do more in improving. The overall improvement may be attributed to the Government’s effort to ensure greater compliance with the Procurement Act and regulations during 2022 and 2023,” he said, adding that there were similar improvements with compliance with the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act (FMAA).
Despite these significant improvements in transparency, accountability, good governance, and financial performance between the period 2020 and 2024, President Ali asserted that the PPP/C Administration is still not satisfied.
“That is why we are going to issue performance indicators for Permanent Secretaries and other heads of agencies that they will be measured against to ensure that we continue to fully implement the recommendations of the Auditor General and to comply with the financial regulations governing public accountability and good governance,” he assured.