Taking advantage of the absence of an opposition MP, the PPP/C members on the National Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) yesterday forced through the appointment of 11 staffers of the Auditor General’s Department, including the wife of Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh, according to APNU.
APNU later called the actions of the governing party “unprincipled,” while saying that it is likely to “undermine the integrity” of the work of the Auditor General’s office. The government and opposition members of the PAC had previously been split on the appointments, which were proposed by acting Auditor General Deodat Sharma. In particular, opposition members charged that the promotion to Audit Director of Gitanjali Singh, the wife of the Finance Minister, would present a conflict of interest, given the potential responsibilities that go with her post. A Commonwealth parliamentarian visiting Guyana recently expressed surprise that the wife of the Minister of Finance was employed in the Audit Office, which is responsible for the audit of the country’s public accounts.
In a statement issued last evening, APNU repeated a call for President Donald Ramotar to urgently appoint a substantive and qualified Auditor General, saying it is in the best interest of transparency.
APNU noted that the 11 Audit Office appointments had been the subject of long consideration by the PAC, since most of the staff members being proposed for appointment by Sharma were not considered to be “adequately qualified” to fill the positions. “For this reason they have been acting for years,” it said, pointing out that Sharma himself has been in an acting capacity for seven years.
According to APNU, at the end of the fourth sitting of the PAC yesterday, the PPP members, taking advantage of the absence of AFC member Trevor Williams, “took the unprecedented step” of forcing a vote on the appointments. “…The PPP members contrary to the consensual approach normally used for decisions of the PAC, forced a vote to appoint all the staff including those whose appointments they had previously opposed because they have not met the qualifications required for the posts,” it said. It noted that the PPP members had previously reversed their position on the appointments and also began challenging the right of the members of the PAC to question the proposed appointments.
The purpose of the PPP decision, APNU contended, was to promote Singh, despite the potential conflict of interest. Dr Singh, it noted, is the Chairman of the Board for a variety of entities, including the National Industrial and Commercial Investment Limited (NICIL), Bank of Guyana and the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB). It said too that it is also known that the Ministry of Finance is in control of a large number of public entities of significance and especially those where there have been questions about their practices. The National Assembly has called for a forensic audit of NICIL.
“The danger of appointing the wife of the Minister of Finance to be responsible for the audits of public enterprises such as NICIL is certainly a conflict of interest,” APNU declared, while saying it is unfortunate that the situation is likely to call into question the integrity of the work of the Auditor General’s Department.
APNU and AFC members have argued that auditors have a professional responsibility to avoid being involved in auditing accounts in which they and their close relatives are involved.
