Auditor’s office only public body to comply with law

(CNS): The Auditor General’s Office tabled its own financial annual report for the fiscal year ending 2010 in the Legislative Assembly on Monday. The office is the first and only government entity to do so in compliance with the Public Management and Finance Law. Although all public authorities and ministries are required to have compiled and completed their accounts, had them audited, signed off by the relevant ministry and tabled in the Legislative Assembly before the year-end, no other government entity has managed to meet this legal requirement. The law also states that government should have compiled a full annual report of the entire public sector accounts, gazettedit and submitted to the LA five months and two weeks after the end of the financial year.

The AG’s report, which is audited by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, who offer an unqualified opinion, reveals that the office billed other government agencies just $1.5 milllion for auditing services, accounting for 72% of the office’s total operating revenue of just over $2 million. The office conducted five special reports, including an update on government accounts, the review of legal aid, the management and use of the government’s fuel card system, the expenditures on the internal police investigation Operation Tempura, and loans given by Boatswain Beach to its former director.

The report also revealed that the office had prepared a report for the Ministry of Education on the construction of the schools (which is not in the public domain) and assisted the RCIPS with the UCCI investigation relating to alleged theft at the university by the former president. As well as its work with the Public Accounts Committee, the report reveals the work the auditor does with Hazard Management. It explains how the office shifted its focus to assist in clearing the backlog of public accounts. It also reveals that the office managed to save money by not hiring consultants as planned, not replacing staff that left or employing temporary staff to cover for a maternity leave but covering the extra work within the existing team.

The kind of detail set out in the AG office’s report is what the Caymanian public should be able to see and access for all of the other 36 entities in government within six months of a financial year end. However, no other department has tabled its 2010 annual report in the Legislative Assembly. Although around a half dozen audits have now been completed on some statutory authorities who were in compliance with the law, those reports have not yet left their respective ministries and reached the country’s parliament, so they are not available for public scrutiny.