(Trinidad Guardian) Finance Minister Colm Imbert has sought legal counsel on a letter from Auditor General Jaiwantie Ramdass’ attorney Anand Ramlogan SC’s Freedom Chambers, which Imbert says contains “outrageous, false and defamatory accusations and allegations”.
And Imbert says the letter’s insinuation that he as Minister of Finance, or ministry officials, unethically backdated the Amended Public Accounts to January 31, 2024, to cover a mistake, when the true date on the Amended Public Accounts is April 16, 2024, is a blatant untruth that has been put into the public domain and this matter now requires a full independent investigation.
“… The findings of which will be reported to the Public Service Commission and any other relevant office holder for their review and whatever action these independent institutions deem appropriate,” Imbert added in a statement to the Senate yesterday.
Imbert spoke ahead of a Government motion seeking to extend the time to present information on T&T’s 2023 accounts to the Auditor General.
This, after the impasse where the Auditor General declined to put into her 2023 report on T&T’s accounts, figures for $2.6 billion which Finance Ministry divisions found in February were not factored into their statements for 2023. This was due to problems with a new electronic cheque-clearing system used by the Central Bank. The $2.6 billion was found after Treasury Division statements of T&T’s accounts were presented on time—January 31, 2024—to the Auditor General. After numerous outreaches to the Auditor General, she agreed to accept the updated statement on April 16—but the $2.6 billion was not reflected in her 2023 report.
In his statement, Imbert said last Sunday at 5.51 pm, he received from the Attorney General an electronic copy of a legal letter from Freedom Law Chambers, headed by Anand Ramlogan, SC, with UNC Senator Jayanti Lutchmedial listed on the firm’s letterhead as the first associate in those law chambers.
Imbert said, “The letter contained a number of outrageous, false and defamatory accusations and allegations, about which I have sought legal counsel, and was purportedly based on instruction given by the Auditor General, Ms Jaiwantie Ramdass, to Freedom Law Chambers.”
Imbert detailed the allegations (See box), adding, “The allegations made against me as Finance Minister and the dedicated public servants involved in production of the national accounts on an annual basis are totally false.
“Throughout the letter from the Freedom Law Chambers, the terms ‘MOF’ and ‘Ministry of Finance ‘and reference to officials of the Ministry of Finance are co-mingled and confused with the persona of the Minister of Finance, with the clear intention to give the false impression that the original and amended public accounts for the financial year 2023 were prepared and submitted to the Auditor General by the Minister of Finance himself, when nothing could be further from the truth.”
He said the minister does not prepare, declare, certify or submit the national accounts to the Auditor General.
“The national accounts are prepared, declared, certified and submitted by the Accounting Officer in the Finance Ministry—the Permanent Secretary—and are co-signed by the Comptroller of Accounts and the Treasury Director. The Minister of Finance isn’t involved in this exercise,” he said.
Imbert said it was particularly disturbing that the letter alleged the ministry “unethically backdated the amended Public Accounts to January 31, 2024, to cover a financial mistake of unprecedented magnitude with grave financial, economic and political implications”.
New dimension
Imbert said since he did not prepare or amend the public accounts, nor date, certify or submit them to the Auditor General, “I consulted with the staff in the ministry about this very serious accusation of improper conduct on the part of the MOF. I was subsequently sent a copy of the Statement of Declaration and Certification submitted by ministry officials to the Auditor General with the Amended Public Accounts, on April 16, 2024. From what has been shown to me, this Statement of Declaration and Certification of the Amended Public Accounts is dated April 16, 2024, and not January 31, 2024, as falsely alleged in the letter from Freedom Law Chambers.”
Imbert said he had seen on the April 16 Declaration, the signatures of the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, the Comptroller of Accounts and the Treasury Director and the date “April 16, 2024”, written in their own hands.
He added, “The insinuation that I as Minister of Finance, or, alternatively, the officials in the ministry, unethically backdated the Amended Public Accounts to January 31, 2024, to cover a mistake of unprecedented magnitude in the national accounts has therefore taken on a new dimension. If the document shown to me is authentic, and the true date on the Statement of Declaration and Certification of the Amended Public Accounts for the Financial Year 2023, submitted by ministry officials, is, in fact, April 16, 2024, and not January 31, 2024, then a blatant untruth has been put into the public domain.”
Pre-action letter’s allegations
Finance Minister Colm Imbert said the Freedom Chamber letter used the acronym “MOF” on pages which could be interpreted by a member of the public as the “Minister of Finance”.
Imbert said the letter alleged that:
• ↓The Auditor General received from the MOF, two sets of Public Accounts, comprising the Original Accounts and the Amended Public Accounts for the financial year 2023 with a Statement of Declaration and Certification dated January 31, 2024, showing a Statement of Revenue figure of $64,488,503,781.84.
• ↓That both the original and amended statements were dated January 31, 2024, despite the error which caused the amendments being discovered in March 2024, long after the statutory deadline of January 31, 2024.
• ↓That the MOF simply backdated the original accounts and replaced the old revenue figure with the new one and that it did so without showing any amendment to the national accounts.
• ↓The Auditor General “… quite properly viewed this as an unethical attempt to backdate the original national accounts which were submitted to her to cover what was a financial mistake of unprecedented magnitude with grave financial economic and political implications”.
Imbert said the letter “flagrantly misrepresents statements” he made in the House of Representatives last Friday in the debate on the motion to extend the time to present information to the Auditor General. The letter also falsely accused Government of attempting to coerce and intimidate the Auditor General into doing its bidding in breach of the law.
