Members of the Pushback Movement/Stakeholders United Movement say they are in full support of Auditor General Jaiwantie Ramdass’ stand against the Ministry of Finance in the 2023 public accounts fiasco.
And they are hoping for a full disclosure of the accounts for the possibility of a comparison to other years. The call came yesterday, as the group, led by general secretary Michael Kerr, delivered a letter of support to the Auditor General’s office at Tower D, Waterfront, Port-of-Spain. The letter was received by public servant Joy Gittens.
After emerging from the Auditor General’s Office, Kerr told the members he was introduced to Deputy Auditor General Gayatri Maharaj, whom he said, “made it quite clear that really and truly, the Auditor General is pleased to know that we the people support the move”.
The letter highlighted what it claimed “appears to be political interference in the President-appointed Auditor General responsibility which is acknowledged under the Constitution”.
“We hope that this unnecessary government intimidation has not caused you any personal stress. From our standpoint, you are simply doing your job. We salute your stand, and fully support your decision to hold whoever is responsible to properly account and provide all supporting information so as to permit you your constitutional independence in the interest of public accountability.”
It added, “Furthermore, like is standard in accounting practices, we hope the original accounts that were submitted for your audit report, that on this occasion, as is customary in accounting practices, that the original account will be published and the restated account for comparison be provided also.”
Kerr said there’s a public thirst for good governance, transparency and accountability.
On April 26, Minister of Finance Colm Imbert succeeded in having a motion passed in the House of Representatives to extend the time to submit public accounts to the Auditor General and the time for the Auditor General to submit a report on the accounts to Parliament, under Sections 24 (1) and 25 (1) of the Exchequer and Audit Acts, respectively.
Ministry of Finance officials had detected a variance and understatement of approximately $2.6 billion in the 2023 public financial statements. However, they claimed a dispute arose in March while Ramdass and staff at her department were preparing the report to be submitted to Finance Minister Colm Imbert at the end of April.
Ramdass has defended her conduct in the submission of the report to Parliament and concerning the information provided by the ministry on the understatement.