Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar says in the face of malicious attacks and coercive bullying by the Government, Auditor General Jaiwantee Ramdass refused to manipulate the 2023 Auditor General’s report to reflect favourably on the Government.
In a release, Persad-Bissessar said this was after the deadline date had passed because the Ministry of Finance could not provide any documentation or evidence to verify its claims.
She said, “No supporting documents were produced by the Ministry of Finance to verify its claims of $2,598,130,761.72 in misstated revenue. The Government cannot account for an expenditure of one billion dollars since payments could not be verified as there were no supporting documents.”
Persad-Bissessar noted that on Friday, April 26, 2024, the Minister of Finance, Colm Imbert, and “the internationally disgraced Attorney General Reginald Armour launched a petty-minded attack under Parliamentary privilege against the Auditor General, Ms Jaiwantee Ramdass.”
“These vicious attacks attempted to purposely smear the reputation of Ms. Ramdass after she refused to succumb to coercion and bullying from the Government to modify the Auditor General’s 2023 report because:
1. No supporting documents were produced by the Ministry of Finance to verify its claims of $2,598,130,761.72 in misstated revenue.
2. The government cannot account for expenditure of one billion dollars since payments could not be verified as there were no supporting documents.
The Opposition leader said she has been informed that the facts are:
1. The Auditor General received the public accounts from the Ministry of Finance on January 31, 2024.
2. The Public accounts were then audited in accordance with section 25(1) of the act for the transmission of the report of the Auditor General by the statutory deadline of April 30, 2024, to the Speaker of the House, the President of the Senate and the Minister of Finance.
3. On March 25, 2024, two months after the submission deadline, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance verbally informed the Auditor General of a supposed error regarding the revenue statement.
4. The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance sent a memorandum dated March 28, 2024 (Two months after the deadline) to the Auditor General requesting the allowance of an amendment to the revenue statement, which was previously submitted on January 31, 2024.
5. The stated variance amounted to approximately 3.379 billion dollars. However, the Ministry of Finance indicated that it could only reconcile approximately 2.598 billion dollars and could not explain the difference of approximately 781 million dollars.
6. On April 16, 2024, the Ministry of Finance recalled the public accounts initially submitted in January and sent an amended public account for audit.
7. The amended public accounts in April showed a statement of revenue figure of $64,488,503,781.94 as compared to the January figure of $61,890,373,020.22, which was a difference of $2,598,130,761.72.
8. The Auditor General then sent audit staff to the Ministry of Finance to gather documents and verify any evidence of this adjustment to revenue and to determine if it was properly recorded in the accounting books and records.
9. However, NO SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS WERE PRODUCED BY THE MINISTRY OF FINANCE TO VERIFY OR SUBSTANTIATE THEIR CLAIMS OF $2,598,130,761.72 IN MISSTATED REVENUE.
10. The accounting books and records of the Ministry of Finance showed no adjustments to reflect any increases in revenue.
11. THE AUDITOR GENERAL COULD ALSO NOT VERIFY ONE BILLION DOLLARS IN EXPENDITURE BECAUSE NO PAYMENT DOCUMENTATION WAS AVAILABLE.
She added, “In the face of vicious attacks and coercive bullying by the Government, Ms. Jaiwantee Ramdass refused to manipulate the 2023 Auditor General’s report to reflect favourably on the Government after the deadline date had passed because the Ministry of Finance could not provide any documentation or evidence to verify its claims.
The motion brought to Parliament and passed by a simple majority on Friday April 26, 2024, violated the constitution.
The Government delayed laying the constitutionally due Auditor General’s Report 2023 in Parliament, which was nothing short of an attempt to hide its financial negligence and incompetence from the citizens