The coalition Government will have a stern test ahead of them when the consideration of the 2015 Auditor General’s (AG) report has been completed and they will have to submit, in writing, a commitment to either adopt or reject the AG’s many findings and recommendations.
It will be the first time that the coalition Government will have to account for financial anarchy found by the Auditor General to have occurred since it took office in 2015 and documented in his report.
These fiscal infractions include abuse of Guyana’s Contingency Fund and widespread overpayment of contractors. The Public Accounts Committee (PAC), before whom the 2015 AG report currently rests, has been the scene of turmoil for the past few months with several accounting officers having to be cautioned and evicted from the Parliament’s chambers for being untruthful with the Committee.
According to PAC member Juan Edghill, there is an expectation when an accounting officer comes before the Committee that, at a minimum, the officer will be forthright, factual and honest with the PAC.
“We would expect that whatever undertaking they make that they will fulfil it. For example, if they promise to submit documents they would submit those documents and that their undertaking would not be hindered by any obstruction from political boss or operatives, because they are the accounting officer and they will answer to the PAC.”
According to Edghill, at the end of this process the PAC will present a report to the National Assembly. That report will document the parliamentary sub-committee’s findings and recommendations.
“After that is completed, the Government would have to provide a Treasury memorandum, which will form the official Government response to the Auditor General’s findings and PAC’s recommendations.”
“Once the Treasury memorandum is submitted,” Edghill explained. “That is the Government’s commitment to what they will do based on the PAC’s recommendation.”
The last Treasury memorandum to be issued was one in 2013, pursuant to the PAC’s report on the AG’s findings of the year 2009. It therefore means that the PAC will have its work cut out before getting to the coalition’s government’s spending.
Worrying signs
Already, the Government has adopted a defensive stance to the Auditor General’s report, with Finance Minister Winston Jordan being heavily critical of some of the findings. In fact, Jordan went so far to state that the AG’s interpretation on what counts as emergency spending “doesn’t count under the law.”
