In last week’s article, we referred to the sad state of public accountability at the beginning of 1991. The last set of audited public accounts to be produced and laid in the National Assembly was in respect of 1981. The Authori-ties had contended that technical difficulties involving the use of the main frame IBM 3/15 computer at the central Ministry of Finance affected the Government’s ability to produce the accounts for subsequent years. However, there were no alternative plans to resolve the problem, including the possible use of back-up data, if any, and/or using the accounting records of Ministries/Departments/Regions.
