–says transparency at record high as APNU’s failures exposed

PRESIDENT Dr Irfaan Ali, on Saturday, defended his administration’s record of transparency and accountability, contrasting it with what he described as widespread financial mismanagement under the former APNU+AFC government.
In a live broadcast on his Facebook page, he said the APNU was “distorting” the facts, pointing to official data, including the Auditor General’s 2024 report, which shows significant improvements in public accountability since the PPP/C took office, and a clear decline in governance breaches compared to the APNU+AFC period.
“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 AG’s reports between 2015 and 2019, which repeatedly stated: “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 mechanism 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.”
Drawing a stark contrast with the APNU+AFC’s record, President Ali said his administration has been “aggressively” implementing the Auditor General’s recommendations and addressing issues as soon as they arise, rather than waiting until the end of the fiscal year. As a result, he noted, the Auditor General has issued no warnings about poor implementation of past recommendations under the PPP/C.

He added that accounting officers have already begun acting on the 2024 recommendations and have been instructed that failure to fully implement them “will carry consequences.”
President Ali also highlighted broader improvements in public financial management. In 2024, the Audit Office examined 829 contracts valued at $48.19 billion, with less than three per cent flagged for overpayments, all of which were recovered before the Auditor General finalised his report. This is the third consecutive year in which every overpayment was recovered before the audit’s completion, a first in the country’s audit history.
Despite the low percentage of overpayments, the President said the government is pursuing even stricter measures to eliminate them.
“So, 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 predictive indicators,” the head of state noted.
THE FACTS
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.”
In 2024, the Heads of Budget Agencies successfully implemented more than 80 per cent of the 179 recommendations made in the previous year, either fully or partially, the 2024 AG report stated, noting that this represents the third-highest implementation rate of recommendations since 2015.
The strong implementation rate in 2024 stands in stark contrast to the five years spanning APNU+AFC tenure, when approximately 41 per cent of recommendations were not implemented.
Also, the Audit Reports note that the recovery rates for overpayments were extremely low between 2015 and 2018, which was under the APNU+AFC administration.
For example, in 2015, only 7.49 per cent of overpayment was recovered and in 2017 and 2018, only 29.7 per cent and 12.1 per cent, respectively.
Also, during the fiscal year 2024, the PPP/C Government worked with the AG and contracted auditors to advance its commitment to transparency and accountability by bringing the audited accounts of public enterprises, statutory bodies, trade unions, Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDC), foreign-funded projects, and constitutional agencies up to date. During the 2024 fiscal year, more than 254 audit opinions were issued for these agencies. This marks the third-highest number of audit opinions issued since 2015 and underscores the significant progress made by the government in expanding audit coverage.
All these audits resulted in unqualified opinions, indicating no material findings of any irregularities.
“In every single indicator we can point to marked improvement in transparency, accountability and good governance,” President Ali said.
Moreover, there was a marked reduction in procurement breaches, as reflected by the number of recommendations issued by the AG to address this issue.
Except for the Guyana Defence Force, National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA), and Ministry of Public Works, the other agencies have displayed greater compliance with the Procurement Act and Regulations, the report noted, adding that the overall improvement may be attributed to the government’s efforts to ensure greater compliance with the Procurement Act and Regulations.
The President also noted that the report stated that the agencies resolved most of the queries before the Audit Report was finalised. Some 70.5 per cent of the queries in the management letters sent to the agencies were resolved during the period they were given to respond to the Audit Office.
Moreover, the report noted that the strong internal controls contribute to improved accuracy of financial reports, compliance with regulations, and detection and/or prevention of fraud.
“We have seen significant improvement in transparency, accountability, good governance and financial performance between the period 2020 and 2024, and we are still not satisfied. That is why we are going to issue performance indicators for permanent secretaries and other heads of agencies that they will be measured against to ensure that we continue to fully implement the recommendations of the Auditor General and to comply with the financial regulations governing public accounts, accountability and good governance,” President Ali firmly stated.