Auditor General Deodat Sharma yesterday submitted a report to the National Assembly where it will remain under ‘lock and key’ until it is laid in the House.
This report is one of five for which Sharma and his team have been able to meet the statutory deadline.
Sharma, in remarks just before handing over the report to Speaker of the National Assembly Raphael Trotman said the document will be laid in the National Assembly by the Speaker and will be duly examined by the Public Accounts Committee. He used the opportunity to remind all that these sittings are open to the public. This is a great opportunity for the citizens (taxpayers) to hear if their tax dollars are spent in accordance with the estimates and that all monies have been applied to the purpose or purposes for which they were intended, and in accordance with the required regulations, procedures and policies.
In addition to meeting the statutory deadline, he said that over the last year his team has been able to increase its technical competencies; there have been infrastructural development in the IT Department; enhance the human resource functions and continue engagement of stakeholders.
These improvements, Sharma noted would not have been possible without the continued support from the IDB, CESO, ITEC, as well as the Government of Guyana.
Trotman in brief remarks said that the Public Accounts Committee is a “very vibrant committee in the House”. He said that the committee does its work.
“I think for our part we need to strengthen the functions of the Public Accounts Committee some more. I would like to see a budget control office so that MPs are better advised…how to ask the right questions and not to have to ask the same question over and over,” he said.
He said if such an office is in place when MPs come to review the document they know what they should be looking for, what to ask for and how to ask. “That is something that I hope that the parties will be taking on board,” he said, adding that such an office should be headed by a lawyer with staff that could support not only the Public Accounts Committee but all other committees.
Also present at the simple handing over ceremony was PPP MP and member of the Public Accounts Committee Manzoor Nadir.
