Auditor General’s office working with police on Region Eight school feeding fraud

The Office of the Auditor General is working together with police on the investigation into multi-million dollar school feeding fraud in Region Eight and according tao Auditor General Deodat Sharma conclusions will not be made any time soon.

Sharma told Stabroek News that the investigation is ongoing.

He said that given that it’s a collaborative efforts and given the fact that Region Eight is a far-flung area there is no time frame in which his office was looking to complete its work.

While noting that the police have already begun interviewing persons, he said that it will take some time for the police to “go through the system”.

During the handing over of the 2016 Auditor General’s report to Parliament on September 29 Sharma had disclosed that his office was conducting forensic audits in Region 8 regarding the school feeding programme, which involves possible mismanagement of $40 million. Sharma related that one barrier to the investigation was the access to information because of missing vouchers. That matter has been reported to the police.