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Lack of funds will continue to cause backlog for oil and gas preparation – Auditor General
By Kiana Wilburg
Auditor General, Deodat Sharma finds himself between a rock and a hard place. With limited funds, he has the arduous task of clearing up years of unaudited statements for many statutory bodies and preparing his officers to scrutinize the ever technical oil and gas sector.
During an interview with Kaieteur News last Friday, Sharma said he is concerned about both areas and getting them done effectively but “there is only so much a little money can do.”
The Auditor General admitted, “Yes we have a backlog. There are a number of agencies which we still have to audit but what can I do if I don’t have all the funds? Our full budget was not approved. If I had all my funds everything would have been finished.”
Sharma was also reminded of criticisms by some local critics that in his 13 years of being Auditor General, he has only conducted four performance audits. The law states that at least one is to be done annually. Again, Sharma blamed the lack of funds for this. He said too, that there are some investigations which he would like to start but his officers do not have the technical expertise needed to properly report on certain matters.
Auditor General, Deodat Sharma
As for the oil sector, the Auditor General said that he will have to make some sacrifices as he moves to sharpen the skills of his officers for the sector. He said that this industry is also one which will require performance audits.
Sharma said, “We are determined to prepare as much as possible for this sector. We need training so we can know what to look for…If you check the ExxonMobil contract, you will see that there are expenses which are allowable and others which are not…We need to know how we are to treat with such matters…We also have experts who are coming to show us all the little things we are supposed to look for …for example, they will show us the ropes about procurement tricks used by oil firms, how to know if certain vouchers are to be accepted as genuine and so forth.”
Sharma also shared that two Canadian experts will be providing tips on how the Audit Office can go about auditing ExxonMobil’s US$18M signing bonus which is being kept in a special account at Central bank.
The Auditor General added, “But all this training and so forth will require sacrifice. I will have to cut corners. I have to prepare a budget quickly and look at how many (members of my) staff I would need to work in this area.”
IDB WANTS CAPACITY BUILDING
The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) is one of the many institutions which have expressed worry about the state of the Audit Office as Guyana approaches petroleum production.
Specifically, Resident Representative of the IDB, Sophie Makonnen recently stated that the independence and capacity of the Auditor General’s Office is one of the priority areas to be addressed by Guyana, in order to ensure there is transparency and accountability for the oil money to come.
She said, “The Audit Office is a vanguard in any thriving democracy; its office audits the use of tax payers’ dollars and report the same to the Parliament of the people led by the Speaker…We would be comfortable at any moment in time in the history of Guyana when the collective wisdom of Guyana’s decision makers sees the value of this audit office and the benefits it dispenses.”
In this regard, Makonnen noted that there should be no delay in improving the capacity of the Audit Office in overseeing expenditure of the oil money by Government.
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