Quote "Anand Goolsarran, told this publication that in the absence of the modules, Guyana has a less than desirable accountability framework and as such billions of dollars in assets and consumables can go untracked. “Those two modules are very important as they allow for the tracking of the physical assets. In their absence, it means that monies can be spent to acquire, for example, equipment or vehicles, and there would be no effective measures in place to trace them and to ensure that they are properly accounted for.unquote

Goolsarran has been saying for a long time now, to close the loopholes for fraud, will they begin now? or Ramo is just blowing hot air?

Those unused accounting modules…Jagdeo deceived the nation – Ramjattan

“The analogy on point here is like the lawyer who is asked to draft a law to provide for certain offences, but who knowing that those provisions will sooner catch him, then proceeds to complete that law without any penalty provisions.”

The fact that after 10 years, two accounting modules responsible for tracking the assets and consumables for which millions of taxpayers’ dollars are expended have not been used, was not a mere mistake. “It was a deliberate act by the architects of our existing financial framework: Winston Brassington, head of NICIL; Minister of Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh; and Former President Bharrat Jagdeo.”

Khemraj Ramjattan, Leader of the AFC

This view was expressed by leader of the political opposition party, the Alliance For Change (AFC), Khemraj Ramjattan.
In light of the revelation that the two most important of the seven modules belonging to the Integrated Financial Management and Accounting System (IFMAS) have not been used for 10 years, Ramjattan said that it is tantamount to deceiving the nation.
He said, “That is grand deception and what is worse is the obvious and serious deliberation that went into that deception. The then President, Bharrat Jagdeo, certainly deceived the nation. He had told the nation then that the IFMAS system, which we all understood to be the complete system, inclusive of those vital two modules, which we now learnt were excluded, will be implemented under him. But from all appearances, he never wanted the two modules from the very inception. Why? Because these two excluded modules of the system would have traced all the transactions. Now what do you want me to think but that the exclusion is the intentional action of one who wants to erase his illicit track and traces of that track?
“Indeed, I feel that Dr.Singh, Brassington, and Jagdeo are the three persons in the upper echelons of government who know the financial and monetary system the most and they can be the grand manipulators of that system because of their total knowledge. This knowledge is even to the exclusion of everyone else, including the President (Donald Ramotar). That trio’s non-transparent attitude and control-freakism leaves them in absolute control to the exclusion of even those within the opposition who know a thing or two about finance and monetary matters. I want to even put into the basket of items that the fact they don’t want a qualified Auditor General is part of their scheme…”
The Parliamentarian insisted that the only way to change this manner of behavior with Guyana’s financial system is for increased public pressure. This, he said, is necessary to change the status quo, for the whole scheming is beyond sometimes the comprehension of ordinary members of the public. There must also be pressure from the Private Sector and the Diplomatic community, and those international financial institutions who lend monies to this Government, the politician added.
When asked whether he would be able to say why anyone would buy an important accounting system and not use two of the modules responsible for ensuring accountability and value for money, Ramjattan said, “It is fair comment I believe in the context of all the circumstances that this was a grand deception to fool Guyanese into thinking that a foolproof system will be implemented. And that it was deliberately not implemented on the pretext that Guyana did not or does not have the human resource to work those two modules. This is even further deception. And from all the indications, it was Jagdeo, Ashni Singh and definitely Brassington behind that exclusion.”
He then said that what happened here is “like the lawyer who is asked to draft a law to provide for certain offences, but who, knowing that those provisions will sooner catch him, then proceeds to complete that law without any penalty provisions.”

A deliberate act meant to perpetuate a lack of accountability

 
…a serious indictment on the Auditor General’s Office – Ram

By Gary Eleazar

It was not by accident but rather deliberate that the Guyana Government did not operationalise two very critical modules of the Integrated Financial Management and Accounting System (IFMAS) for more than 10 years.
This is the view held by Financial Analyst, Christopher Ram, who yesterday in a brief telephone interview with this publication weighed in on the predicament where two of the most critical modules of the $132M accounting system have not been put to use.
The IFMAS system was designed with seven aspects, namely, the Appropriation, Expenditure, General Ledger, Budget Preparation & Reporting System (BPRS), Purchasing, Revenue and Asset & Inventory Modules.

Financial Analyst, Christopher Ram

The Purchasing and Asset and Inventory Modules are the ones that have not been implemented.
Without the two modules in use, Ram said that this facilitates a lack of transparency and accountability.
He observed that former President Bharrat Jagdeo, under whose watch the system was put in place, was not known for his respect for transparency and accountability.
The unimplemented Purchasing Module seeks to provide the ability to create purchase requisitions and purchase order with self-creating commitments to reserve the necessary funds; provide the ability to record the receipts and return of goods and automatically update the purchase order to reflect the transactions; complete integration with the payment process to reflect payment for goods ordered and received and provide the ability to create an asset record when goods are received.
The unimplemented Inventory/Assets Module seeks to provide the ability to create inventory and asset entries when entering a new record based on the requisitions; provide the ability to have automatic stock ordering when the system hits a user-defined reorder point; provide the ability for tracking issues and receipts; provide the ability to enter receipts for deliveries to stores via the Purchasing module; provide the ability to make adjustments to reflect inventory average and shortages and provide the ability to provide queries and reports on current inventory, stock activity and receiving reports.
According to Ram, there is nothing to suggest that when the system was purchased, the two unimplemented modules were not also purchased, which raises serious suspicion, given the lack of accountability now in existence.
Ram said another even more puzzling indictment is the fact that the Auditor General over the years has never flagged the situation in his report as being of importance and explained the consequences to the public funds by not having the two modules in place.
“This is a serious indictment of the Auditor General,” said Ram, who also questioned whether there would have been conspiracy at work.
According to Ram, the public has for too long allowed the Auditor General’s Office to flout its responsibility to the nation.
The 2012 Auditor General Report only observed that the Purchasing and Asset & Inventory module is still to be operational.
Over the weekend, the contentious issue was raised with none other than the Head of State, President Donald Ramotar and he committed to having his Finance Minister, Dr Ashni Singh meet with the press to provide answers to the numerous questions.
IFMAS was implemented on January 1, 2004 under former President Bharrat Jagdeo. Its intention was to modernize the business of the Government. It is responsible for recording all financial data generated by the Government. These include the issuing of cheques, recording of warrants; contingencies fund advances and the generation of the annual financial statements.
The accounting system was specially designed to suit Guyana’s financial landscape.

Undermine account standards then rip off. Old tiefman strategy.

All sorts of excuse from the facilitators of this thievery to the thieves themselves why the most important aspect of accounting, disbursement and inventory is not functional. What the hell is the other modules good for?