-review of documents to take two months

THE Mayor and City Council (M&CC) of Georgetown has submitted payment vouchers for the spending of $173.4 million to the Auditor General (AG), Deodat Sharma. The vouchers had been outstanding for over a year.

When asked by the AG and the Permanent Secretary (PS) of the Ministry of Communities, Emil McGarrell last year to present the documents, City Hall had said that they could not find them.

“The council handed over the vouchers on Thursday and Friday last week…we are not sure if those are all the documents, but my officers are down there right now checking off these vouchers,” Sharma announced during a Public Accounts Committee (PAC) meeting on Monday.

Members of the PAC were critical of the move by City Hall to present the documents despite claiming that they could not be found.

City Treasurer, Ron McCalmont left many questions unanswered, but apologised for the late submission, noting that the answers would be found in the AG’s report.
PAC members had expressed how difficult it was to access information from the council. Chairman of the PAC, Irfan Ali and a member of the committee, Bishop Juan Edghill said the council has failed to present financial reports to the Ministry of Communities and even the AG.

“We cannot continue like this…the M&CC refused blatantly to provide the Auditor General with a report…they cannot verify any expenditure by this agency, so there is nothing in the financial realm and operations of this agency that can be really explained and verified because of the attitude towards not only the Auditor General’s Office but the Ministry,” said Ali during a previous PAC meeting.

In light of this, member of the PAC Nigel Dharamlall had called for intervention by the police and criminal charges to be laid against the Treasurer and the Town Clerk, Royston King.

The projects that were under the radar include, Constabulary Training School, $23.096 million; City Engineers building, $13.594 million; Constabulary Headquarters building, $12.921 million; Kitty Market, G $60.121 million; and the Albouystown Clinic, $21.580 million.

During the recent PAC meeting, the AG said it will take him at least two months to verify whether or not the payment vouchers are valid.

According to Sharma, he was told that the documents were stored in three different locations, so logistical errors led to the misplacement of the documents.
Dharamlall and Edghill were critical of the responses from the City Hall but Chairman of the Committee, Irfaan Ali said the AG will give advice on the way forward.