Dear Editor,
I refer to the September 18 captions “Civil Society Group slams Auditor General for issuing misleading report on oil account” and “Article 13 calls on Auditor General to withdraw ‘clean’ opinion on NRF financials” (KN and SN respectively). The Audit Office (AO) slip is showing about money supposed to be paid, money that should be booked, and money not paid nor booked, but somehow bypassed. Something rotten is going on in Guyana. It smells. As thanks are extended to the Article 13 group for this startling revelation, I am asking myself whether this is a case of human error on the part of the AO. Or it is an instance of the AO going into a sensitive undertaking with blinders on? Or that the gaping discrepancy (what did not add up) was seen and conveniently overlooked.
Despite my unfavourable view of the AO, I still pass no judgment on what the real objective(s) of the AO could be, in what comes across as a slipshod exercise, and certainly would raise questions and concerns about the hands of the AO, and where its professional heart is. It is definitely not the finest hour of either the Audit Office itself or the Auditor General himself. Editor, we are speaking of large number of dollars, a big entry for the accounting records, and as material as they come. Tax is as sensitive as they come. Especially in the roiling context of oil. It is why I have so much trouble with the revelation that it could have been missed. I mean there is no way for even a beginner auditor or an unseasoned audit team not to come to grips with the taxes paid by the Government of Guyana into the nation’s Oil Fund held outside of Guyana.
Taxes are the equivalent of an unblinking red light in Guyana, and when linked to oil, then it is a wall. Routine keenness would identify, as being present (regardless of who pays it), or not being there at all, with the associated report and findings presented. Put differently, it is the biggest of big-ticket items, regardless of who pays. For the absence of entries about taxes not to be flagged does more than slam the Audit Office, it buries, and it is not in regular ground. What is really going on at the Audit Office? Why is it that we even have to be reviewing, speaking, and writing about this suspicious development? Again, I cast no stones, but am simply casting about for answers to the inexplicable. What rises to the unbelievable? Any answers that may be forthcoming would be helpful in clearing the air on what did or did not take place.
Personally speaking, I take the hard road and say that the expectation is that it will not be persuasive, though I retain an open mind. My discernments are that where audit in general is concerned in this country, its body of work has taken a nosedive, and it was due for a crash landing. I think that this scandalous development over tax paid, tax receipts, and tax booking into the NRF (Oil Fund) doesn’t look very healthy at all for confidence in the efforts of the Audit Office. That is, clean, professional, unbiased efforts. I am labouring uphill here to give the Audit Office the benefit of the doubt. But, thoughts remind of the sum of work of local official law enforcement, and I confess to being in the same boat where State auditing is in Guyana. Who is for whom? Who sees selectively? Who does not see at all when certain issues and certain people are in the mix?
Look, we have to call things as they are, and stop making simpletons of ourselves. If we don’t have an Audit Office that can be relied on, then what do we have? If the billions supposedly spent all over and booked properly where they must be come into question, and the Audit Office is missing in action, or purposely sleeping at the wheel, then what do we have as a system of checks and balances? My hope is that the Auditor General would come forward with what clears the air. If this can be missed, this can’t be done, then what else is up in the air? A credible Audit Office is something that we just must have. It is non-negotiable.
Sincerely,
GHK Lall
