Audits into the finances of the Transport and Habours Department (T&HD) for the period 2003 to 2007 have revealed that more than $1B cannot be accounted for and according to Minister of Public Infrastructure David Patterson he has been receiving different explanations.
The audit reports which were compiled on a CD were tabled during Parliament yesterday.
Tabling the reports, Patterson said that in 2003 the sum of $598M was reported as the operating income however a check by the Auditor General has revealed that the actual amount collected was $639M – a difference of $43M.
In 2004 $332M was listed as the operating income however the AG’s report showed an income of $639M, a difference of $307M.
According to Patterson the same situation existed in 2005 as the stated amount was $362M but the audit revealed that $658M was received; an unaccounted for difference of $295M; in 2006 it was $488M but the audit office revealed that the figure was $805M, a difference of $317M.
In 2007 the amount was $718M but the audit showed $830M, a difference of $112m.
Subsequently, Patterson in an invited comment told reporters that the findings were “disturbing”.
He said that the reports were never laid in parliament even after being completed in May 2012 but now that they have been they will eventually be dealt with by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC). Noting that there are still seven years of audits left to be done he said that “it is disturbing that over a $1B” is unaccounted for.
According to Patterson, the Auditor General is simply stating the facts. Patterson said that it is up to the PAC to handle the matter but from the ministry’s end he will seek to ensure that everything is “above board” and is done “transparently”.
Asked if efforts were made to ascertain where this money could have gone, he said that he has but has been getting different explanations including the 2005 floods.
He said that he has since spoken to the auditor general who has consented to the recruiting of an independent auditor to look into the situation.
Earlier, when Patterson rose to present the reports along with the audited financial statements for the Guyana Energy Agency for the year ending 31st December, 2013 and the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority for the year ending December 31, 2009, there was some uncertainty as to whether they were listed as items on the order paper.
Patterson told the House that he was presenting the audited financial statements for the T&HD, the Guyana Energy Agency and the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority.
When he rose he first addressed the T&HD audit reports saying that he would like to draw the members’ attention to them as certain “qualified opinions” were listed therein.
Patterson was able to give the discrepancies in the numerical figures for each year except 2007 as he was interrupted by the Speaker. The Speaker said that the House was not in possession of the reports to which Patterson was referring as they had not been circulated in the printed version.
Patterson however stressed that they were circulated and while holding up a CD said that the clerk had asked that 100 copies of the reports either be submitted in hard copy or in CD form. The ministry he said chose the latter option and he later stressed that all he was merely seeking to do was to read into the record some of the items contained in the reports.
At this point opposition front bencher Gail Teixeira on a point of order said that the reports being referred to were not on the order paper. “They may be circulated in CD form …they are not on the Order Paper”, she stressed before calling on Patterson to withdraw the statements he had earlier made with regards to the reports.
The Speaker after a check confirmed that it was indeed an item on the Order Paper.
As he went through the financial summaries, the Speaker told Patterson that he must lay the reports. In keeping with this directive he subsequently laid the audit reports for all three agencies.
