SUBMISSION of the 2019 Auditor General’s Report, which was required to have been submitted to Parliament by a statutory deadline of September 30, was unfortunately delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The good news, however, is that the Auditor General has requested permission to submit a ‘soft copy’ of the document to Speaker of the National Assembly, Mr. Manzoor Nadir.
And while Clerk of the National Assembly, Mr. Sherlock Isaacs, confirmed on Monday to this publication that the report has not yet been submitted, he noted that Auditor General Deodat Sharma has been in regular communication with him on the status of the document.

“He did not say when it will come, but I expect it shortly,” Isaacs said, adding: “It should’ve been laid since September 30, but because of COVID, they couldn’t work as regularly, and it affected the production of the report. That’s what I learnt from the Auditor General. Two weeks ago, he sought the Speaker’s permission to present his report in soft copy, and the Speaker gave permission for the report to be submitted to him in soft copy.”

The Auditor General’s report is an account of financial audits conducted on all publicly- funded entities, including those that are donor-funded, local government agencies and trade unions here in Guyana. The contents of the report are usually made public after being laid in the National Assembly.
The Audit Office of Guyana (AOG) scrutinises the expenditure of public funds on behalf of Parliament. The Office was established by the Constitution, which speaks to the independence of the Office, describing its principal functions, and articulating the provisions that govern the appointment of the Auditor General.

Once submitted, the report will be handed over to the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which meets to examine it. The varying public accounting officers, particularly the permanent secretaries of the respective government ministries, are called before the committee to answer for discrepancies and questionable financial transactions.

The PAC consists of five members from the Government’s side of the House and four from the Opposition; however, the chairman of the committee has to be a member of the Main Opposition.
The Government members on the committee are Minister of Governance, Ms. Gail Teixeira; Minister of Public Works, Bishop Juan Edghill; and Members of Parliament, Mr. Sanjeev Datadin, Dr. Vishwa Mahadeo and Mr. Dharamkumar Seoraj.

The Opposition committee members are Messrs. David Patterson, Jermaine Figuera, and Ghanesh Mahipaul, and Ms. Juretha Fernandes. A chairman for the committee has not yet been selected.

In the interim, House Speaker, Mr. Nadir, who is head of the Parliamentary Management Committee, will chair the committee’s first meeting to oversee the elections of a chairman, who, once elected, will then take over the management of the committee.