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Two glaring issues highlighted in the 2021 Auditor General’s Report have still not been addressed by Government, the local watchdog group Integrity Group Barbados (IGB) has noted.Chairman Andy Armstrong said neither the Auditor General’s request for more staff nor his concern about the absence of a functioning Public Accounts Committee (PAC) was mentioned in the Government’s response which was laid in Parliament last Thursday.In a telephone interview with Barbados TODAY, Armstrong pointed to Auditor General Leigh Trotman’s complaint about a lack of staff in his department, which was affecting their ability to execute their duties effectively and efficiently.However, the IGB head highlighted that Government’s 64-page response, which was prepared by Director of Finance and Economic Affairs Ian Carrington and gave detailed answers to several other issues, failed to deal with that particular concern.“We still don’t seem to have, as a country, a solution as to how we are going
Government’s promised response to the red flags raised by the Auditor General in his scrutiny of the accounts of ministries and public departments has been as welcome as it is has been intriguing.For most Barbadians, the question remains, what happens now?We are overdue for definitive action on issues of public fiscal management that successive administrations have repeatedly failed to confront.The script has been old and tiresome. Year after year, when the Auditor General report is tabled we express collective shock and outrage at its findings; the blame game between the political parties takes over; no one is held accountable; we mouth support for the Auditor General; then the nine-day wonder passes.We move on until the next report is laid with no fewer alarming findings of glaring deficiencies in financial reporting and record keeping, poor internal controls at state-owned enterprises and reports of failed projects where millions of taxpayer dollars are missing or misspent.The
The Auditor General should be fully protected from political interference or any form of legal action, given the nature of his job and his responsibilities to the people of Barbados.Leader of the Alliance Party for Progress (APP) Bishop Joseph Atherley expressed that view as he has called for legislation to be enacted to protect that individual from being hauled before the courts in relation to information disclosed in any Auditor General Report.His comments in an interview with Barbados TODAY came just three days after Director of Finance and Economic Affairs Ian Carrington responded to several concerns raised by Auditor General Leigh Trotman in his 2020 report.Atherley noted that on at least one occasion, civil action had been taken against the Auditor General based on information in a report.“I, as former chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), have seen what has come before us, and again looking at what the Auditor General has said and the replies made in Parliament, I t
Revenue Commissioner of the Barbados Revenue Authority (BRA) Louisa Lewis-Ward is giving the assurance that some improvements are on the cards for the agency’s collection and reporting processes.This was outlined in the BRA’s extended response to the latest Auditor General’s report, which identified a number of shortcomings within the revenue collection agency.In his 2021 report, Auditor General Leigh Trotman raised several concerns relating to extremely long delays in the provision of information, lack of information and inconsistencies that “pose risk of errors, omissions or acts of fraud being perpetuated and concealed”.He also highlighted the issue of refunds to taxpayers and monies that were due to the BRA.However, while refuting some of those claims, Lewis-Ward noted that the revenue collection agency has been plagued with “technological challenges”.