Mickela Panday
In T&T there is a widespread and well-founded belief amongst the population that as a people we are powerless when it comes to holding those that govern us accountable for how our country's finances are spent or misspent, as the case may be.
Every year, by the Appropriation Act, Parliament approves expenditure for the financial year. It is the Auditor General's responsibility, as stated on its website, "by law to examine and report annually to Parliament on the accounts of Ministries, Departments, Regional Health Authorities, Regional Corporations and such State Controlled Enterprises and Statutory Boards for which the Auditor General is the statutory auditor."
Further, "The audit services take the form of financial audits, compliance audits, and value for money audits intended to promote accountability, adherence to laws and regulations, economy, efficiency and effectiveness in the collection, disbursement and use of funds and other resources." Equally important are the Auditor General's wide powers of access to all books, records, returns and other documents relating to the accounts of the state bodies under his purview.
In undertaking his task, the Auditor General will scrutinise the public sector instances of wastage, inefficiency or ineffectiveness. In this respect, given the numerous allegations of corruption, wanton wastage and mismanagement, the role of the Auditor General is of critical importance because it is his office that acts as a watchdog to ensure that the billions of dollars appropriated in the budget are properly spent and accounted for.
On the face of it, whilst a review by the Auditor General does not and cannot change what has happened, the report can and should encourage entities to change future behaviour and address possible failings in past processes. Yet, year after year, government after government, the reports are laid in Parliament, the same complaints are made, and nothing is ever done to remedy the failings.
It is unacceptable that in the 2013, 2014 and 2015 reports, the auditor repeatedly notes, "The audit revealed numerous instances at various Ministries/Departments where Financial Regulations and Instructions continue to be disregarded...The findings include examples of weaknesses in the system of internal control, as well as non-compliance with legislative requirements and/or financial directives. Comments also cover lack of proper maintenance of the relevant subsidiary books and records. The state of the Internal Audit function in Ministries and Departments remains a matter of grave concern as in prior years."
In those three successive years, he also makes the same complaint of the "numerous instances where documents requested for audit purposes were not produced which represents a serious breach both of the Auditor General's constitutional and legal right of access to all documents relating to the Public Accounts and of financial and accountability requirements."
In this light, how can we ever hope to ensure accountability and transparency in the governing process if public bodies refuse to comply with their legal obligations to account for the expenditure of public monies? And what happens when there is a change in government as there was in September 2015? Who is going to be held responsible for the discrepancies involving financial matters found at the Ministry of the People, the Education Facilities Company, the Sports Ministry and the Integrity Commission, to name a few, that were revealed in the report for the financial year October 1, 2014 to September 30, 2015?
Now that the Auditor General has done his job and reported to Parliament, as he is required to do under the Constitution, he has no power to correct shortcomings or irregularities or to seek redress for them. It is obvious from his report (as has been the case with previous reports) that Government is not being run economically, or efficiently, and in some cases is being run suspiciously. The question that arises is now that the state of government management has been shown and irregularities discovered in the use of public monies appropriated by Parliament, what can be done about it?
Sadly, under our current system of government, the Parliament is powerless to do anything upon the report being laid, other than for its members to whinge about what it revealed, and for one side to use it to criticise the other side. That being said, the Government must tackle the issue of what steps can be taken to call people to account and to recover wasted and lost money if we are to regain the public's confidence in our institutions, especially when there has been no history of any action taken on the basis of the Auditor General's report.
It is unacceptable that year after year once the report is laid in Parliament, it is business as usual as government ministries, local authorities and the like continue to be havens of mismanagement and corruption, with transparency and accountability in short supply. We can only hope this administration is serious about reinforcing accountability in the country and the Auditor General's report amounts to something more than a costly annual ritual.