In line with their pre-election commitment to greater scrutiny of how public monies are being spent and whether value for money is being obtained, the opposition parties are going to press for the appointment of a qualified person to head up the Office of the Auditor General.
Since the departure of Anand Goolsarran seven years ago Deodat Sharma has been acting in the position as Auditor General and the Opposition parties are voicing their objection to this continued state of affairs, notwithstanding the fact that Sharma is being seen as having done a fair job thus far.
Speaking to this newspaper, former Chairperson of the Public Accounts Com-mittee of Parliament, Volda Lawrence said that not only is there need for a qualified, substantive Auditor General but also for a change in the way this person is selected and in how the Audit Office is financed.
“I have very serious concerns about the Auditor General’s position and I have reiterated that the present system has to change,” she said, adding that it is improper to have the person appointing the Auditor General being the person whose Government is being audited. She said also that the 2004 Audit Act supposedly made the Audit Office an independent entity but she said that financially this is not the case. She said that the entity does not enjoy its own budget line.
“[The Audit Office] is auditing the same people that they have to get money from,” she said.
Lawrence said that there must be modernization in the way the entity operates. She said that the Parliament should be the entity that allocates funds to the Audit Office and elects the Auditor General. “If we are to improve the way we do things, those are pivotal steps to be taken,” Lawrence said.
Asked whether any of these changes could happen in the Tenth Parliament now that the Opposition has the majority, she said that this would mean a change in the Constitution and hence requires a two-thirds majority.
According to Article 204 of the Constitution of Guyana, the Auditor General shall be appointed by the President in accordance with the advice of the Public Service Commission. It said that if the office of the Auditor General is vacant or the holder of the office is unable to perform the functions thereof, the President acting in accordance with the advice of the Public Service Commission may appoint a person to act in the office and any person so appointed shall, subject to paragraphs 3 and 4 continue to act until a person has been appointed to the office of Auditor General and has assumed the functions of that office, or as the case may be, until the holder thereof has resumed those functions.
It was in this manner that Sharma was appointed following the resignation of Goolsarran and he has retained the position for the last seven years. Critics have said that Sharma does not possess the qualifications necessary for the post and did not have the independent streak of his predecessor. However, the manner in which the Auditor General is appointed is left up to the President as he acts on the advice of the PSC, the majority of whose members are picked by him.
Lawrence, an APNU MP in the new Parliament, said that there is still a lot of interference in the operations of the Audit Office. She said that there is need to iron out all of these issues. “The Budget Office continues to call the Audit Office [with a view to financing] and the PAC is left out in the cold,” she said, making reference to a Policy and Procedure Manual meant to guide how the PAC relates to the Audit Office. This she said is not being adhered to.
Former Auditor General Goolsarran had tendered a letter indicating his intention to demit office come January 20, 2005 through voluntary retirement, citing on-the-job stress and deteriorating health. Since that time Sharma has acted as Auditor General.
His resignation had come following attacks on him by then President Bharrat Jagdeo and Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon.
The attacks had come after Goolsarran had signalled his intention to pursue further investigation of the export of dolphins from the Office of the President which had snared presidential advisor Odinga Lumumba.
Speaking to Stabroek News last week, presidential candidate Khemraj Ramjattan said that the AFC takes the position that after so many years of someone in an acting position, not wanting to find a qualified person who fits the requirements really is an outrage.
“The PPP did indicate that it is in a search for the qualified Auditor General but I rather suspect that they feel somewhat comfortable with Mr. Sharma.
Now I am not in any way denigrating Mr. Sharma, but he does not fit the qualification and that being so, the Government ought to find persons in Guyana who can so fit the qualification. And it is important that they don’t continually violate the Constitution by putting up this acting position,” he said.
“Mr. Sharma has done a very good job as acting Auditor General, the trouble however is that you require one that is going to be the substantive Auditor General,” he said.
He said that the continual non appointment of the qualified person is going to soon create a lot of controversy because we are now into a new dispensation.
We have people out there who can fit the bill, and unless it is soon corrected we are going to be making some very serious charges against the Government,” he said.
Ramjattan said that the AFC wanted to allow the Government a period of time to take corrective action. “It has been a long, long time and during that period of time I must say that Mr. Sharma has been presenting his Auditor General’s Reports and to that extent [it is good] but we can’t continue this way,” he said.
