The main parliamentary opposition is of the view that several ongoing projects are deserving of special attention by the state’s accounting apparatus. The A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) aims to highlight these identified “red flags” concerning multibillion-dollar projects to the Audit Office. This was according to Opposition Member of Parliament, Ganesh Mahipaul.
The legislator’s comment comes mere hours after the House passed the $1.146 Trillion 2024 Budget piloted by the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) government.
During a press conference today, Mahipaul, while noting that the Audit Office has a limited reach of 10 percent of projects within the regions, departments, and ministries, he called on the Auditor General to “do more” when he examines the accounts for the year 2021 and 2022.
“When he examines their (PPP/C government) accounts for the year 2021 and 2022, I am appealing to the Auditor General that he needs to do more to hold this government accountable and to ensure that there is good examination of these accounts,” the MP said.
Mahipaul said that the Opposition stands ready to “assist” the Auditor General, Deodat Sharma by ensuring that concerns over projects “under the radar” are documented and shared with him.
“We will send it to him in an official missive; calling on him and his staff to ensure that proper audits are done with reference to these projects, “he noted.
Mahipaul said that one of the projects that deserves additional attention, even a possible forensic audit, is the government’s office complex, which has already seen an allocation of about $7 billion, yet no physical works are seen at the location, which has been changed at least two times.
He also noted that a number of contractors have received “huge” percentages of contract sums without making equal progress on their respective projects.
“There are so many other malpractices that can amount to corruption within the execution of projects with taxpayers’ money that the Auditor General’s Office really needs to step their game and ensure that accountability and transparency is met.
As I said, we from the APNU+AFC will be documenting these projects that we believe deserve proper audits and I dare say forensic audits and also, we will be informing the international community and our friends overseas of the happenings asking them to also assist in that call for proper audits of our taxpayer dollars.”
