Accounts of Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDC) are in total disarray as 80% of them have not been audited for the last five years and columnist Anand Goolsarran has pilloried the audit office over the delinquency.
In columns in Stabroek News on Monday and last week, Goolsarran also pointed out that the Linden municipality has not been audited for 28 years and also took aim at the Ministry of Local Government over this state of affairs.
Goolsarran, a former long-serving auditor general, noted that according to the 2012 Auditor General’s report, 52 NDCs, representing 80 per cent of the total number, did not have audited accounts for the last five years. Eighteen of these entities have “also never produced audited accounts since they were established in 1994, i.e. for 19 years!” He said this is despite the fact that NDCs receive significant amounts of money from the Treasury in addition to the rates