Auditor General must act in fraud prevention

THE EDITOR: Do we have an Auditor General in this present government administration?The citizens of this country need to hear from this office as to what is happening with our state finances presently! Ministers with specific portfolios are not providing information when asked to do so in Parliament and this is a serious breach of Parliamentary rules and regulations. These Ministers cum Parliamentarians can be disciplined for not reporting the peoples’ business effectively. The Speaker of the House encourages all of this which leads to a breakdown of order in the House and; when citizens see this type of behaviour at the highest levels it encourages transgression of civil rule. The Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate are not setting good examples of behaviour and rule of law in their respective jurisdictions, and this is seriously impacting on the thinking general citizenry presently. With all the problems regarding hefty salaries for CEO’s in the public enterprises, reports of corruption within the PNM government and now the movement of millions of dollars throughout CARICOM to help other regional governments, who is guarding the guards?

The citizens of TT have a right to know what projects are being funded regionally, the governments in charge, and the amount of money appropriated to each regional project. The Auditor General is responsible for financial and performance audits of all State agencies, authorities, companies and subsidiaries except, for performance audits of Government Business Enterprises and staff of Members of Parliament. The Auditor General has wide ranging powers including full and free access to State premises and information relevant to an audit and these powers are balanced by strict confidentiality provisions. Why does this country have to rely on Lindquist and other foreign companies to do work relating to fraud control? We certainly do have bright, young professional accountants locally who can do this job without being bought out by political parties! Sound corporate governance means that the Auditor General has a role to play in fraud prevention and control not only in the public sector and to other levels of government but also in the private sector. The Auditor General needs to put in place new and operational policy or guidelines for the Public Service in relation to fraud control immediately and ensure that these guidelines are adhered to. There must be ongoing monitoring of each Ministry’s (and other agencies, departments commissions etc) arrangements for fraud control and reporting on each Ministry’s fraud control arrangements each year in Parliament. The people need to be informed and this is not happening!

DR CHRIS MAHADEO
Port-of-Spain