Auditor General Deodat Sharma has expressed concern at the low rate of implementation of recommendations made in his 2016 report on the public accounts and urged government to put measures in place to correct the situation.
“Overall, I am concerned with the lack of action towards the implementation of these recommendations, since 58% … have not yet been fully implemented,” Sharma said in his 2017 report, which was presented to the National Assembly last Thursday.
He reminded that each year, his office issues recommendations to Ministries, Departments and Regions that are designed at improving systems and practices at these entities and improving the governance and accountability mechanisms.
Sharma informed that in his 2016 report, he made 602 recommendations. He said that in reviewing each recommendation to determine what action, if any, was taken by the respective Accounting Officers, it was found that 178 or 30% were partially implemented while 174 or 38% were not implemented.
According to him, in many instances, recommendations are repeated each year without appropriate action and as a result, weaknesses and issues that impacted negatively on government’s governance and accountability mechanisms continue to occur. “Once again, I encourage government through the Ministry of Finance, the Accountant General’s Department and the respective Budget Agency Heads to take appropriate action and put measures in place to address the recommendations made in my prior (2016) report and this year as well,” he wrote.
