Use audits as spur to get better: Permanent Secretary Davis
Permanent Secretary for Health and Medical Services Philip Davis said the Auditor General’s Report should be welcomed as a catalyst to improve.
“No organisation will ever be perfect. We really value what our audit colleagues tell us where we need to get better, we tackle those issues vigorously following the recommendations in the audit report,” Mr Davis said.
“We need to see this not as criticisms, but actually helping us to improve.”
Mr Davis made the comment yesterday in response to the Public Accounts Committee chairman Ashneel Sudhakar;s question over the Auditor General’s Report of 2014. It came during a meeting at Parliament.
Mr Davis said the process of improving and enhancing financial controls never ceased because it was an annual exercise.
He agreed that there was a fixed point in a year where auditors would come and identify issues within the ministry.
Mr Davis said it should be understood that in any government or private sector, an audit was more of a learning process and not punishment.
The ministry’s director Finance, Ami Prasad, said they acknowledged the audit findings stated in the report. He said the ministry had put in appropriate practices to address the issues highlighted. Mr Sudhakar questioned why systems to address the issues were implemented only after the Auditor General Report of 2014 had been released and why the ministry had failed to implement the systems earlier. Mr Davis said what was not highlighted was all the work done to improve the health systems and the work of the auditor was to identify the area that needed to be improved. Mr Sudhakar said the auditor’s role was to provide assistance and find where the loopholes were.