Auditor General impasse eroding public confidence

More than eight months following the January 31, 2024, deadline for the Ministry of Finance to submit the public accounts of T&T for the financial year ending September 30, 2023, the impasse between Auditor General Jaiwantie Ramdass and the Ministry of Finance over those accounts seems far from being resolved.

On Monday in Parliament, in discussing the Auditor General’s Special Report, Finance Minister Colm Imbert again poured salt in the wound of this issue, when he referred to the failure by Ms Ramdass to state that the error in the public accounts was corrected in her special report on the issue.

“We view this omission on her part as a continuing campaign of non-cooperation and criticism of public officials in the Finance Minister by the Auditor General,” Mr Imbert told Parliament.

This language by the Finance Minister is quite unfortunate, given the fact that the Auditor General and Government are currently embroiled in two court matters, one of which is heading to the Privy Council before the end of this year.

The conversation is also regrettable because the Auditor General’s original report outlined major weaknesses which resulted in a disclaimer of opinion being given, “due to not being able to obtain sufficient audit evidence on the public accounts for the financial year 2023,” according to the special report of Ms Ramdass.

It is also likely that if the Auditor General does not obtain “sufficient audit evidence” to satisfy herself that 2023’s accounts can be cleared, there is not much that the Government can do, short of seeking her dismissal, to compel her to abide by the wishes of the Minister of Finance.

That is because T&T’s Exchequer and Audit Act, at section 9, requires the Auditor General to satisfy herself that “all reasonable precautions have been taken to safeguard the collection of public monies and that the laws, directions and instructions relating thereto have been duly observed.”

This legal requirement that Auditor Generals must satisfy is at the heart of the dispute, which pertains to the understatement of $2.6 billion in revenue, reportedly as a result of the Central Bank’s introduction of a new electronic cheque clearing system.

If, however, the Auditor General believes that she needs to audit the Central Bank’s cheque clearing system to satisfy herself that the collection of public money has been safeguarded, all reasonable efforts should be made by Central Bank Governor Alvin Hilaire’s team to facilitate the Auditor General’s department.

Mr Imbert has opined that staff of the Auditor General’s department expressed their satisfaction that the $2.6 billion understatement was appropriately accounted for at a July 22 meeting. If that is, in fact, the case, there should be no hindrance to Ms Ramdass meeting with the top executives of the Central Bank and receiving the reports and working papers the Central Bank would have procured in its effort to analyse and rectify the issues with the cheque clearing system.

This issue of the unresolved audit of T&T’s 2023 accounts has gone on for far too long and with these latest developments, risks descending into a ridiculous and farcical bacchanal, quite unbecoming of the offices involved and serving only to erode the public’s confidence in the professionalism and integrity of these two entities.

The post Auditor General impasse eroding public confidence first appeared on CNC3.