Audit of City Hall ‘not my call’ – Min. Sharma
Minister within the Ministry of Finance, Jaipaul Sharma
Minister within the Ministry of Finance, Jaipaul Sharma

FORENSIC audits into state agencies are currently ongoing, but calls made by the opposition People’s Progressive Party (PPP) for Government to also audit the Georgetown ‘City Hall’ have been greeted with a negative response by Minister within the Ministry of Finance, Jaipaul Sharma, who said that an audit of the local government body is not his call to make.The PPP yesterday released a statement to the effect that there is “widespread public outcry” for City Hall to be audited amidst “stiff resistance” from the Mayor, Deputy Mayor and Town Clerk to any audit being done at the local democratic organ.

The opposition party described the position regarding City Hall being spared an audit as one which runs counter to the present state of affairs, in which the country is awash with commissions of inquiry, audits, investigations, and initiatives of this nature.

“The defensive position adopted by Jaipaul Sharma, Junior Minister at the Ministry of Finance, in the wake of the public demand for City Hall to be audited is a shame and disgrace to the office he holds”, the PPP statement said.

Arguing that it is “disingenuous” for Sharma to say that because it is part of the local government system, it is beyond the control of Central Government to audit City Hall, the PPP posited that “Guyanese are not prone to accept such stupidity.”

But when contacted yesterday, Minister Sharma said the ongoing forensic audits which were embarked upon by the APNU+AFC coalition government following its accession to executive office was not a call he had made.
In fact, he reasoned, he has no input on the list of agencies to be audited.

“These audits were not my call…I had no control of (which agency) would be audited. Those were stipulated before the audits began, so I cannot now say which entities should be audited and which should not,” Minister Sharma disclosed.

He further explained that these audits are for all statutory bodies, and City Hall does not fall within that category, but is rather a local government body. In that regard, Sharma said Government should not, and will not, dictate how the operations of the city should be conducted, once there is a local government body in place. Accordingly, any audit to be done at any of those municipal entities would require a proposal and approval from the council, which would be free from any influence of central government.

“If the composition of the council changes after local government elections, they can request an audit, and there is nothing the Government will do to prevent that. In fact, I would support such a call for City Hall to be audited. This audit would actually work in Government’s favour, so we would welcome it,” Minister Sharma said yesterday.

According to the PPP, the Ministry of Public Service and the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs form part of central government, and both have had peripherals audited. This alleged “double standards” and “partisan and self-serving fresh approach adopted by the ex-military/civilian ruling clique” was denounced by the opposition party, whose officials called on Sharma to “come clean and cease the claptrap about transparency.”

Sharma, moreover, revealed that difficulties have arisen with the ongoing audits because certain staff members at some of the agencies to be audited worked under the previous administration and are now “uncooperative.”

He related that many of them with important information are withholding the information, and this could be critical to the outcome of these audits. This, he said, has resulted in a slowing down of the process, which can result in it taking longer than was anticipated.

The forensic audits are expected to be conducted into almost 30 State agencies, national projects and funds.

By Ravin Singh

 

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