Junior Finance Minister Jaipaul Sharma

State forensic audits…

An apparent ongoing “dispute” between State agencies and their respective contracted forensic auditors is the reason for many of the unnecessary delays in the probe into the various Government agencies throughout the country.

Junior Finance Minister Jaipaul Sharma, in providing an update to Guyana Times about the forensic audits, revealed that the major problem being encountered was the fact that officials from several of the agencies refused to cooperate with the auditors who were hired by the Government to conduct the relevant investigations. “We are satisfied so far that most of them now are on track. But in terms of engaging the various agencies, persons (forensic auditors) are complaining of a slow response by the agencies in getting up information. That is something I am not satisfied with … people in the organisations like the top brass are, somehow, for some reason, not cooperating as they should in supplying information, remember people depend on information to work, so if you can’t give them information, they can’t do anything,” the Minister said.

As a result of this conflict, many of the audits were being held up and the entire process ended up moving along at a slow pace. Sharma explained that when he received reports of these complications, he immediately wrote to the respective Ministers for them to intervene and ensure the necessary information was provided to the auditors.

Thus far, Sharma confirmed that only the audit into the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was completed. Previously, the Minister had reported that the audit into the EPA revealed that there were numerous offline accounts being “unlawfully” utilised by the Agency as the revenues earned should have been transferred to the Consolidated Fund.

Asked if the audit into any other agency was completed, Sharma replied in the negative. “All of the work is still progressing, nothing is final…most of the contract is finalised and people are now starting to work … It would take time for things to happen,” he said.

Reports to the public

Sharma explained that the audits were being done for internal purposes. “Our work is going to be that, as a new Government, we need to know what is happening internally within the Ministries … This work is for internal purpose,” he said. When the audits are completed, the relevant agencies would then be required to provide statements on the various findings. In their comments, the agencies are expected to state their agreement or disagreement with the findings and present the necessary evidence to support their position.

When this aspect is completed, the reports will then be submitted to the Finance Minister Winston Jordan for review. Thereon, Sharma explained that the reports would be distributed to the relevant Ministries which would then decide if the reports would be revealed to the public.

Uncover irregularities

In June, Government had launched a series of forensic audits into several state agencies, with one of the reasons being to target those agencies, which, under the previous Administration, were allowed to remain as offline accounts and did not follow the correct procedure of having their revenues placed in the Consolidated Fund.

The main reason for the audits is to uncover irregularities that the various agencies may have been guilty of practising.

Asked whether the audits have uncovered any irregularities as yet, Sharma said it is too premature to determine. Some of the agencies currently being audited are the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL); Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC); the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC); the Guyana Gold Board (GGB); the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) and the Guyana Oil Company (Guyoil).