Finance Minister Larry Howai is assuring that steps are being taken to address issues raised in the report of the Auditor General on the Public Accounts of the Republic of T&T for the Financial Year 2012. He stated it was important to emphasise that the explanations which have come in from the various ministries showed that the expenditures highlighted in the media report were budgeted for and where increases were reported these were in keeping with the budget.
A statement said, “What created some of the appearance of large increases and in some instances of over expenditure in some ministries and what may have created some of the challenges identified by the Auditor General was the fact that there was a major realignment of ministries in the last quarter which resulted in budgets being transferred as some departments were transferred to new ministries and there was insufficient time to make all the adjustments.
“This then gave the mistaken impression that expenses had ballooned when in truth and in fact, it simply represented a transfer of an entire department or several state enterprises to a new ministry.” Howai said the absence of signed contracts and the absence of signed lease agreements were issues that must at all times be taken in the context of the delays in preparing and completing contracts and agreements, particularly where several ministries or departments have to collaborate in order to finalise agreements.
The statement added, “This is not to excuse the problems identified and notwithstanding these explanations, we recognise that there are weaknesses in the system and the archaic processes which currently exist can open the Government to abuse. “Our work with the comptroller in identifying the short term measures that can be implemented to address the problems will therefore continue, and we are also working towards a longer term solution for the overall revamping of the system.”