Gov’t got value for money with forensic audits – Minister Sharma

Georgetown, GINA, July 11, 2016

The government and people of Guyana were afforded value above what was paid for by the state, in the award of forensic audits to various individuals and companies, Minister within the Ministry of Finance, Jaipaul Sharma said.

In a recent interview with the Government Information Agency (GINA), Minister Sharma said, “We were able to get more than what we paid for from some of the auditors, especially the individuals.”

On its ascension to office following the May 2015 General and Regional elections, the APNU+AFC government commissioned 50 audits to examine statutory bodies, companies and entities in which  government has direct interest in terms of funding, to understand their operations and check their efficiency.

Sharma explained that, 40 of the audits have thus far been completed. “The audits started last year, but all weren’t started at the same time. It depended on the availability and price of the auditors. The pool was limited and we reached out to all the auditing firms with the exception of one which had no interest in working for government,” Sharma explained.

Meanwhile Sharma explained that some delays in the preparation of audit reports resulted from sloth and a lack of cooperation from many of the agencies being audited.

“In many cases because of the slothfulness of the agencies to be audited, we didn’t get the kinds of answers we were looking for because many required documents were not submitted on time. When information wasn’t provided in a timely manner many auditors just moved on causing delays and in some instances just closed off the audit without the given information,” Sharma said.