The PAC hearings

 

The information coming out of the present hearings being conducted by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has been quite revealing; and once again justifies previous calls for stronger action to be taken against accounting officers and other public officials who knowingly operate outside of proper accounting practices and procurement laws.

So far, during the hearings to query the 2015 Auditor General’s Report, there have been several examples which show that tax payers’ money is being spent with little regard for transparency and accountability.

For instance, in one of the hearings, the Committee was told that the Public Security Ministry has, for more than a year, paid three members of staff their full salaries despite the fact they have not been on the job – after being suspended as a result of suspected involvement in a multi-million-dollar scandal.

The Ministry’s Permanent Secretary told the Committee that the three staffers were sent on administrative leave since March 2016, but they have not been interdicted; so payment continued, since the investigations have not been completed.

As expected, this disclosure was met with disbelief by Committee members, who voiced their discontent over the fact that taxpayers’ dollars were being used to pay the staffers for doing nothing. While the PS has indicated that reports on the matter from the Guyana Police Force and the Audit Office have been sent to the Public Service Commission (PSC), one wonders what the real reason is for the matter taking such a long time to be resolved. It is unacceptable that such an investigation has been rolled on for over a year.

Then there has been the case of the Ministry of the Presidency purchasing a luxury vehicle for the Prime Minister. The PAC heard that not only was the vehicle delivered almost one year late, but 100% of the $13M total was actually paid up front with two cheques, using money that had been allocated for the previous year.

One Committee member said that although the vehicle was purchased for the Prime Minister’s use, the rules of the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act (FMAA) ought not to have been flouted.

Based on the findings of the AG Report, the PM’s Office had, in December 2015, requested an advance of G$11 million from the Contingency Fund, stating the reason for the advance as being to offset a part of the Government Information Agency’s (GINA’s) debt to the Guyana National Newspapers Limited (GNNL). Part of that money was used for the debt, but a portion of that sum was also used for another purpose, and that constituted a breach of the financial regulations.

Based on the fact that the payment of GINA’s debt to GNNL does not constitute an emergency, but rather a routine expenditure, the Contingency Fund should therefore not have been used; this expense should have been budgeted for in the annual budget.

The use of millions of dollars to sole-source drugs and medical supplies for the Ministry of Public Health in “emergency situations” engineered by the Government has also been under the microscope for some time now. This, by itself, needs a detailed investigation, as it is clear that several of the country’s procurement laws were breached.

There are several other examples of the Contingency Fund being abused, and financial transactions being conducted under highly questionable circumstances. The Government will have a stern test ahead of them when the consideration of the 2015 AG Report is completed; and they will have to submit, in writing, a commitment to either adopt or reject the AG’s many findings and recommendations.

We have noted that, already, the Government has adopted a defensive stance in regard to the report, with Finance Minister Winston Jordan being heavily critical of some of the findings. In fact, Jordan went as far as to state that the AG’s interpretation of what counts as emergency spending “doesn’t count under the law.”

It is clear that, in spite of the rhetoric from Government, corruption is still entrenched in Guyana, and much effort will have to be made to ensure the system is rid of such practices. The Coalition Administration must not only talk about tackling corruption, it must take concrete steps to address the issue head-on.