THE ongoing forensic audits at State agencies, embarked upon by the APNU+AFC Administration, remain “confidential” at this point in time, says Minister within the Ministry of Finance, Jaipaul Sharma.During an invited comment with this publication recently, Sharma, who is responsible for overseeing the successful execution of these audits, said that difficulties have been encountered since this initiative was undertaken by the Government.
‘UNCOOPERATIVE’
He explained that these difficulties have come about because some employees at the State agencies remain “uncooperative” with the relevant authorities conducting the audits. And this has resulted in a slowing down of the process which is now expected to take longer than was expected.
Refusing to divulge further information, Sharma maintained that such a process remains “confidential” at this point in time. However, anything that is contrary to legal and professional conduct, which might be unearthed, will be investigated, the Finance Minister assured.
Detailing the process, Sharma related that after the consultant or accounting firm has completed their audits into an agency, a report is then sent to the entity from which a response would be needed. Following this, the consultant or accounting firm will then have just about a week to incorporate those responses into their findings and present a final report which will then be sent to the Finance Minister. The Ministry would then vet the report and recommend if any further work is needed to be done at the entity.
To this end, he disclosed that the only report received by the Ministry so far is based on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) which the Ministry has examined. This was done by Sharma himself, who told the Guyana Chronicle that he indicated to the accounting firm that further work needs to be done into the agency.
The Minister Sharma also made mention of the recent “unfolding” findings at the Guyana Power and Light (GPL), where it was alleged that the Deputy Chief Executive Officer (DCEO) and another board member were fingered in financial improprieties.
According to Sharma, “The DCEO and a board member paid themselves large sums of monies without the consent of relevant authorities.”
That investigation, he said, was a “special investigation”, separate from that of the forensic audit which was pursued after information reaching the Ministry had suggested that there were financial irregularities. “But this investigation was done before the forensic audit had commenced at GPL; we haven’t started GPL yet,” he noted.
But according to him, a forensic audit of GPL would consume more time than that of a normal State-owned agency since it is a “large entity”. In this regard, it was noted that a Terms of Reference (TOR) draft is needed for this undertaking.
The Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) was also described by the Minister as being a “very large entity”, which would require the same procedure as that of GPL, due to the nature of the agency. “We haven’t started as yet though, because we are working on the TOR to have international people come to execute that work,” Sharma said.
Acknowledging that there are professional people in Guyana, Sharma noted that the Government would be aiming to reduce the chances of people accusing them of “witch-hunting” by seeking to source international personnel to execute those functions.
This move by the APNU+AFC Government, just a few months ago, was praised by British High Commissioner James Gregory Quinn, during an interview with Kaieteur News.
FISCAL ACCOUNTABILITY
Expressing that it is certainly “the right way to go”, Quinn underscored the importance of Governments demonstrating fiscal accountability and transparency.
“I think it is perfectly legitimate for an incoming Government to examine what the previous Government has done. So I have no problem with A Partnership for National Unity plus the Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) examining the actions of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP). They are doing it in the right way, they are doing the forensic audits, and that is perfectly right. That is the right direction to go too” the British High Commissioner told Kaieteur News.
The forensic audits are expected to be conducted into almost 30 state agencies, national projects and funds.

By Ravin Singh