Education Minister Shaik Baksh has said the Auditor General’s (AG) 2007 Report as it relates to his ministry has been sensationalised by certain sections of the media.

Baksh told reporters at a recent press briefing at his 26 Brickdam office, Georgetown, that several measures have been implemented to remedy the defects within his ministry in compliance with the previous AG report.

“When the Auditor General’s Report is presented, the ministries do not have an opportunity to defend their position before to the media. The media picks up the Report and that’s it. We have to go before the Public Accounts Committee at Parliament and explain what has taken place and they deem whether the explanation is satisfactory or not,” he pointed out.

The AG 2007 Report stated a sum of $32M was overpaid to a contractor; but Baksh said his ministry has persistently requested the AG not to list this money under the Ministry of Education.

That project, the minister explained was executed under the Social Impact Amelioration Project (SIMAP).

He explained the Ministry of Education at that time had supported the supplementary funding of the project which was to build the President’s College Dormitory.

The minister said he understands the contractor of this initiative is currently before the court and the matter is being addressed by the agency involved.

Overpayment to teachers was another problem highlighted in the AG report and was acknowledged by the minister.

“We do have cases at the commencement of school after the vacation period, where teachers draw their pay and then some of them resign, go out of the country or disappear.

“And the ministry is left with the problem to recoup the days that were overpaid. We have made strenuous efforts to do this, and the Auditor General has rightly stated that to date we have recouped $6M, and we are going to go after defaulting teachers in a more aggressive way.

“We will be publishing names in the papers and will be writing the schools they taught at,” Baksh warned.

On that point, he stressed systems have been put in place to avoid any recurrence and headteachers will be held accountable.

Apart from this, the minister said an arrangement has been made with the bank to refund salaries at his ministry’s request.

Finally, he said a 1996 account in the sum of $72M mentioned in the AG Report has to be reconciled before it is closed, and a special person has been recruited to carry out this task.