Minister of Finance Winston Jordan yesterday took issue with criticisms by the Auditor General of government’s spending last year, while stressing that the public debt payments are mostly up to date and defending the administration’s resort to the Contingencies Fund.
Jordan, responding to findings contained in the Auditor General’s 2015 report, which was laid in the National Assembly last week, said Auditor General Deodat Sharma should have consulted the ministry’s specialists before he sought to comment on budgetary matters.
Jordan noted that the Auditor General’s report was in the past edited by the Ministry of Finance before being presented to the public, but now the Auditor General does not have to seek a comment from the minister before presenting the report. “The Auditor General is now under the Public Accounts Committee. He doesn’t have to ask the minister anything. He could write what he feels like writing…,” Jordan told reporters in the boardroom of his Main Street office, while adding that the Auditor General is also now reporting on matters, including budgetary matters, which he did not report on before.
“If you want to dabble in those areas, what we are asking for is an opportunity to be heard. You make a statement saying we did not spend $20 billion in capital expenditure and revenues were short by $781 million. These are budgetary matters; if you are going to comment on them, ask the people who are the specialists,” he stressed. Sharma, in his report, had stated that for the 2015 fiscal year central government’s current expenditure was under the budget allocation by $25.785 billion, largely due to $20.292 billion under public debt for servicing of loans not being paid. He also noted that $8.452 billion, which accounted for 21% of capital allocation, was not spent. Sharma explained that this shortfall resulted primarily from delays in the implementation of key infrastructure projects and resulted in the return of $1.094 billion, which had been requested by the Inter-American Development Bank from loan agreements for a Road Network Upgrade and the Expansion Programme and Sustainable Operation of the Electricity Sector and Improved Quality of Service.
Jordan stressed that he has no intention of telling the Auditor General how to do his job but called for it to be done with “integrity, professionalism and competence,” rather than playing to the gallery.
He challenged the suggestion that the government had not serviced loans. “Guyana has not defaulted on anybody’s debt. Guyana is up to date with every single creditor, with the exception of those under the Paris Club Agreement, with whom we have not been able to reach an agreement; these were inherited from the last government. There are five countries, [with whom], despite the efforts of the last government and this government, we have not been able to reach an agreement. Every single creditor has been paid on time; we have not defaulted,” Jordan said.
‘Exigencies’
Further, with regard to the Contingencies Fund, Jordan declared that the AG’s opinions about the suitability of spending “doesn’t count under the law.”
Sharma reported that of the $799.898 million drawn from the fund, $604.034 was to meet “routine expenditure.”
Jordan defended this spending, while stating that the AG should have asked the circumstances surrounding the expenditure. “The law gives the minister the sole right to determine exigencies and soon thereafter bring it to Parliament. He does not have to consult the AG. He consults the Cabinet. It is the Minister of Finance who determines and you can’t come six months after and tell me that the motor car I bought, for example, was not an emergency. You don’t know the circumstances and I’m the only one you can ask to explain,” he maintained.
Jordan also called for an opportunity to be heard, while stating that he was “not asking for praise; all we are asking is for factual reporting and let other people form their own opinions.
“If we fall short and you want to write that in your report, go ahead but ask us… so that a reason could be attached to it and it won’t stand unexplained. You want to talk about a revenue shortfall, tell the people the government had a shortfall because they lost X amount from the environmental tax after they lost the Rudisa case at the CCJ,” he said
While Jordan claimed that his ministry was not asked to respond to the findings, other findings under the programme of the Ministry of Finance included responses from the ministry.
Accountant General Jawahar Persaud explained that for the six years he has been at the ministry, the Auditor General has been consulting with the Finance Ministry’s team before publishing his report. “He would send out an initial audit report as per normal audit and we are required to respond and in that regard myself, the Deputy Finance Secretary, who is the accounting officer of the ministry, and the Finance Secretary will attend that meeting and we will have a discourse with the Auditor General where we would iron out certain misinformation or corrections to his report,” he said.
It is not clear why these issues were not discussed at the meeting.
