Mayor: City Hall audit report ‘inconclusive’

GEORGETOWN Mayor, Patricia Chase-Green, has deemed “inconclusive” an audit report into how City Hall had spent the $300M Government had allocated it last year.A recent Guyana Chronicle article disclosed that the Auditor General’s 2015 Report had found several discrepancies in the way the allotted $300M had been spent during the year under review. The sum of money was allotted for the Georgetown restoration initiatives for environmental improvement and improved health and well-being; and according to the Appropriations Account, the full amount had been expended as at December 31, 2015.

However, according to the Mayor, though she welcomes any audit into the City Council, the manner in which it was done was wrong.
“This shows that there is no respect for the Council,” Green said, adding that the auditors went to City Hall, conducted their audit, and submitted a report to the Auditor General without first consulting with the Council.
Added to that, it was said that the auditors returned yesterday to conclude the audit, still without properly informing the members of the Council.

Thus Green has stressed that until the Auditor General submits a full report to the Council, rather than taking it to the media, the reports will not be vivid and accepted by the Council.

Meanwhile, Town Clerk Royston King has said that the Auditor General had to meet a September 30, 2016 deadline, and due to the lack of communication, proceeded with the audit.

According to the report, there was no evidence of the Finance Committee approving 58 payments totalling $48.404M; and there was no evidence of receipt or payee acknowledgement of a payment of $750,000 to a contractor via cheque #164407587.

“The basis of award of several contracts for the weeding of parapets, desilting of drains, and cutting down of trees in various areas around Georgetown could not be determined due to the unavailability of the relevant supporting documents,” the report further noted; and as a result, it could not be ascertained whether proper transparency and accountability were exercised in the awarding of contracts.

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