Auditors are currently working at City Hall following a request made by Town Clerk Royston King to the Auditor General Deodat Sharma requesting that an audit of the council’s stock and financial systems be done.
According to King, the auditors arrived on March 3, and are currently carrying out a stock audit which is anticipated to take three working days. He pointed out that based on discussions with Sharma, the financial auditors would arrive after the stock auditors would have completed performing their duties.
“We are happy that the auditors would be here. We at the City Council value transparency and accountability. This is a public entity, we are dealing with monies from the public and they have a right to know how their money is managed,” he stated.
Officers at the council, King noted, have already indicated their willingness to cooperate and the necessary accommodations are being made to facilitate the audits. “It is a requirement of the law that our books be audited and we are doing that,” King pointed out.
Mayor Patricia Chase-Green had previously said that she was willing and ready to have the auditors review the council’s financial systems, and the council was ready to facilitate the examination of the systems and approaches to the management of its finances at the local level.
PPP/C Councillor Bishram Kuppen, a number of occasions, had called for a forensic audit to be conducted, on what he says are the billions of dollars that are being spent by City Hall without any credible financial reports.
Kuppen had thrice attempted to move a motion for a forensic audit by submitting a written request to the Town Clerk to have the motion included on the agenda of the statutory meeting, but this never materialized.
“One each occasion,” Kuppen said, “the Town Clerk responded that he found fault with the motion but did not advise what the deficiencies were.”
The council had taken measures to improve the capacity of the internal audit department, by providing the appropriate software to manage the systems of property rates and other aspects of its responsibility, a statement from City Hall said on Wednesday last.
The audit department is currently concluding its human resources audit of policies and procedures, and the findings will be presented to the full council. The department will also provide a general understanding, and how the human resource competencies of the council could be maximised.
