PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad – Retired High Court judge, Justice David Harris has been appointed chair of a team that will investigate the understatement of Trinidad and Tobago government revenue for the financial year 2023.
Finance Minister Colm ImbertA statement from the Ministry of Finance Tuesday said Cabinet had given the green light for the probe and that the investigation team will also include David C. Benjamin, a former Audit Director at the Auditor General’s Department, and specialists in Information Technology.
he team will be requested to report to the Minister of Finance within two months.
Last month, the current Auditor General, Jaiwantie Ramdass, sent a pre-action protocol letter to Finance Minister Colm Imbert and Attorney General Reginald Armour, SC, over what she claimed to have been erroneous statements made by them in Parliament about her audited report for the financial year 2023.
The Trinidad and Tobago Constitution states in Section 116 , the the Auditor General shall submit the annual Audited Report of the finances of the country to the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House and the Minister of Finance by April 30.
The audited accounts are based on information submitted by the Treasury, headed by the Comptroller of Accounts and it is provided to the Auditor General by January 31, that is, within four months after the end of the financial year that is being reported on.
Ramdass, who is being represented by the law firm, Freedom House headed by former attorney general, Anand Ramlogan, is calling for a retracement of the statements made in Parliament and to set the public record straight.
Government has since successfully tabled a motion to extend the time to present information to the Auditor General, with Imbert telling legislators that Ramdass had allegedly refused to accept information seeking to correct a TT$2.6 billion (One TT dollar=US$0.16 cents) understatement of Trinidad and Tobago’s revenue for 2023.
Armour told Parliament that it was the duty of the Auditor General, if the error is brought to her attention “….it is your duty to receive the information, to demonstrate the error so as to correct your audit and present a proper audit report.
“It is really A,B,C, it’s no more complex than that…Just as much as the Treasury is obligated to present the full financial position of Trinidad and Tobago, the Auditor General is required through her audit to determine whether the full financial position has been represented. So that if it were to be discovered during the audit that the accounts submitted understated or overstate revenue or expenditure, the Auditor General is duty bound to carry out the necessary corrections”.
But Ramlogan in the pre-action protocol letter, said the government’s approach was fundamentally flawed and called for a retracement of the statements made.
According to the government statement on Tuesday, the Terms of reference fo the Investigating Team will include “What circumstances led to the Understatement of Revenue in the public accounts for the financial year 2023 and what should be done to avoid a recurrence of same” as well as the efficacy of the new Electronic Cheque Clearing System introduced by the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago in February 2023
The team will also examine the efforts made by the officials at the Ministry of Finance and its various Divisions to correct the Understatement of Revenue, and to advise the Auditor General of the Understatement and provide her with an explanation, clarification and further information.
The team will also examine what was the response of the Auditor General to the efforts of the public officials and what action was taken by the Auditor General in relation to the Understatement of Revenue in the audit of the Public Accounts for financial year 2023;
“What are the facts in relation to the allegations and statements made by the Auditor General in her Report on the Public Accounts of Trinidad and Tobago for the Financial Year 2023, including the Addendum and Appendices, with specific reference to the Understatement of Revenue in the public accounts for the financial year 2023.”
