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Jan 28, 2015 News
Speaker of the National Assembly, Raphael Trotman and other politicians, are in agreement with recent statements by Former Auditor General (AG), Anand Goolsarran that Guyana is in a crisis situation when it comes to proper accountability for taxpayers’ dollars.
“It’s regrettable that (President) Ramotar’s ill-advised decision to prorogue the Parliament led to casualties such as this, where national accountability has been stymied,” Speaker Trotman opined.
In his recent writings, Goolsarran posited, among other opinions, that since Trotman was unable to lay the AG’s 2013 Report, it means that, “accountability has therefore suffered another serious blow, since by the time the Assembly convenes, some 18 months would have elapsed before citizens would have had any knowledge of how financial resources allocated for 2013 were expended.”
The Auditor General’s Report on the public accounts for 2013 was presented to the Speaker on September 30, 2014, but he was unable to lay the report in the Assembly because of the prorogation of Parliament.
AFC’s Vice Chairman, Moses Nagamootoo agreed implicitly with Goolsarran. He told Kaieteur News in a brief interview, that prorogation has truly affected the Parliament, and as a consequence, taxpayers are not able to know to what extent their money was misused, and on what, by the current administration.
He said that it is rather unfortunate that taxpayers’ would not be able to benefit from Auditor General Deodat Sharma’s critique of the country’s accounts.
Nagamootoo asserted that the absence of the report means that the National Assembly was deprived of that opportunity to scrutinize the areas where irregularities exist for 2013.
“The prorogation has denied us the opportunity to really see what went on for that year, and as such, national accountability has been hindered,” he added.
APNU’s Shadow Finance Minister, Carl Greenidge who served as the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) also shared his take on the matter. The PAC is responsible for scrutinizing the AG’s reports and delivering its own report, consisting of its findings and recommendations, to the government.
Greenidge said that even though the Parliament is prorogued, the responsibilities of the AG have not been amended and since he is still being paid, is expected to carry out his duties as per normal. This, he said, means that the AG is expected to continue scrutinizing the accounts of the country.
The financial expert said that the AG would not every year, go through the entire accounts of the country, but would take samples from certain agencies and provide his analysis of his findings.
The APNU Shadow Minister of Finance said that the AG would carry out his audit in this manner because he does not have the resources to carry out in-depth investigations every year.
He reminded that the PAC has highlighted on several occasions that Sharma, as well as his agency, lacks the capacity to efficiently report on the accounts of the country, and that his reports have often been found wanting in many areas.
But on Goolsarran’s point that the inability to lay the 2013 AG report represents a blow to accountability, Greenidge said that he highly supports this statement.
He said that the government continues to spend, in spite of what the National Assembly says, and that among other financial violations are expected to be well documented in the AG’s report. How this is dealt with, Greenidge said, is truly up to the AG, the courts and the electorate.
With further reference to the court, Greenidge said that APNU is dissatisfied with the pace at which the Court is handling the 2012 Budgets Cut case, and felt that more could have been done, especially with a matter that is at the heart of national accountability.
“The procedures of the court are as such that it has left the government with free hands,” he opined.
He reiterated his agreement with Goolsarran’s position and went further to state that, “the process of accountability has not only been stymied by the AG 2013 report not being laid, but also by the Court.” Speaker of the National Assembly, Raphael Trotman, also weighed in on the issue yesterday. Trotman said that he agreed with the position taken by the former AG.
“The AG had the 2013 report ready, but this is one of the casualties of the prorogation which President Donald Ramotar chose to do instead of facing the AFC-sponsored No-Confidence Motion. By doing this you have essentially thrown out the baby and the bath water. And I think that is what the European Union was referring to when it withheld the funds allocated for budgetary support for Guyana, because there is no National Assembly to provide that needed oversight,” the House Speaker asserted.
The 11th Parliament, he added, will have to undertake reviewing the AG’s 2013 and 2014 reports when the latter is finished.
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