–President Ali Dismantles APNU’s Claims on Report, highlights 81% of 2023 audit recommendations implemented, compared to years of inaction under APNU-AFC
–Gov’t to roll out real-time audits, AI-driven oversight tools to further bolster transparency, accountability

AFTER highlighting the financial mismanagement under the previous APNU-AFC administration, President Dr. Irfaan Ali expounded on his government’s measurable and documented record of transparency and accountability.

The President on Saturday, in a live broadcast, countered the “distortion” of the truth and facts by the APNU, citing recorded data showing how the level of public accountability has improved under the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) administration.

The President noted that the Auditor General Deodat Sharma’s 2024 report points to a decline in issues relating to transparency and public accountability and records marked improvement, especially when compared to the period under the APNU-AFC.

“The Auditor General reported that approximately 81 per cent of the recommendations made in 2023 were fully or partially implemented. This is a marked improvement over the APNU-AFC’s term in office; where most of the recommendations remained unimplemented year after year, prompting repeated warnings from the Auditor General,” President Ali said.

To support his remarks, the President read the Auditor General’s reports between 2015 and 2019, which repeatedly read, “Overall, I’m concerned with the lack of action towards the implementation of these recommendations, since 83 per cent of the recommendations have not yet been fully implemented.”

The reports further read, “In addition, in many instances, recommendations are repeated each year without appropriate action, and as a result, weaknesses and issues that impacted negatively on governments, governance and accountability mechanisms continue to occur. Once again, I encourage the government through the Ministry of Finance, the Accountant General’s department, and the respective heads of budget agencies to take appropriate actions and put measures in place to address these recommendations.”

Contrasting the APNU-AFC’s track record to the PPP/C government, the President said his administration has been “aggressively” implementing the Auditor General’s recommendations from prior years and is proactively addressing issues as they are detected, rather than waiting until the end of the fiscal year.

Because of the government’s proactive approach, President Ali said the Auditor General had no reason to warn them about any poor implementation of recommendations from prior years in the reports.

The President further stated that, up to press time, the accounting officers have begun implementing the recommendations of the 2024 report, and the government has given them a directive that if they do not fully implement the recommendations, “there will be consequences.”

Also, there have been notable improvements beyond the enhanced implementation rate of recommendations over the past four years, the President said.

During 2024, the audit office reviewed 829 contracts totalling $48.19 billion. Of these contracts, less than 3 per cent were cited for overpayments. All overpayments in 2024, however, were fully recovered before the Auditor General finalized his report. This marks the third consecutive year that overpayments were recovered before the finalization of the audit report, an unprecedented occurrence.

Although the overpayments are at a minimum percentage, the President is still pursuing rigorous measures to tackle them, as he disclosed: “We are going to move to a system whereby we will have real-time audits of projects, project financing, and disbursement so that even during the project cycle and during implementation, we can see where overpayments are being made and have those adjustments within the project itself. We are going into full-scale project accounting as part of the project implementation framework, using technology, AI and predictable predictive indicators.”

Responding to the APNU’s claims made at last Friday’s press conference, the President said they are “totally not within the facts and realities.”