It was the Auditor General’s Office that ended up under the microscope at yesterday’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) hearing, over its reporting on write-offs of amounts totalling over $5 million being sought by the Region Two administration since 2010.
The 2010 Auditor General’s Report stated that approval had still not been obtained for the write off of “gasoline valued at $1.640M, 37,806 litres of dieseline and shortage of cash amounting to $3.692M at the Anna Regina Multilateral School.”
The region was also reported as saying that the matter of the fuel was still engaging the attention of the Finance Secretary (FS) Neermal Rekha, while the shortage of cash was still engaging the attention of the police.
But when the item was raised at yesterday’s PAC hearing, APNU MP Jaipaul Sharma wasted no time in pointing out that the 37,806 litres of fuel represented a total of two quantities lost in separate instances. Sharma lamented the inaccurate reporting of the Auditor General’s office and inquired how such a mistake could be made.
A representative of the Audit Office noted the error and explained that though the amounts had been heaped together, they represented two separate amounts relating to separate issues.
Sharma pointed out that approximately 26,167 litres of the fuel had been spilled in a collision, while the remaining 11,639 litres represented a shortage which occurred at one of the region’s bonds. The individual nature of the instances, he said, should have been evident in the Auditor General’s report.
In addition, he noted that it was both the missing fuel and the shortage of cash at the Anna Regina Multilateral School that were engaging the attention of the police and once again the representative from the Auditor General’s Office admitted that the issues were indeed separate and stated that in retrospect they should have been reported as such.
Several members of the committee became visibly perturbed at the way in which the items were reported, including acting Chairperson Volda Lawrence, who cautioned against such reporting.
In relation to the write-offs, Regional Executive Officer (REO) Sunil Singh said he had indeed requested that all the fuel be written-off, but noted that Cabinet had only granted a partial write off, without giving an explanation. He said the fuel that had spilled in the collision had qualified for the write-off, while the quantity which went missing was not. Singh stated that the region was, therefore, awaiting Rekha’s decision on what should be done about it. But, in response, Rekha said that he found it hard to believe that Cabinet would ever grant a partial write-off and he refuted claims that he was in a position to do anything about the situation.
Rekha produced documents which showed that the matters were still being examined by the police for re-submission to the Director of Public Prosecutions. He said that these offices are extremely important and their jurisdiction over the matter at the moment must be observed. He said that while the matter is being looked at, his office is powerless to take any action or give any advice.
Meanwhile, when asked to provide details of the Cabinet decision, the Audit Office representative was unable to do so, prompting severe criticism from Lawrence for the agency appearing at the meeting unprepared. Lawrence said if the agency had reported that Cabinet had made a decision on the matter, it should have taken along the relevant documentation to prove this finding. She said she found it disturbing that the Audit Office would not be able to provide this information.
As a result, the region and the Audit Office were instructed to rectify the inaccuracies in both their reports and they were given until next week to make the necessary changes.
