Auditor’s office clears 80% of backlog
The Chairperson of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Accounts Alvick Maharaj yesterday commended the Auditor-General’s Office for clearing 80 per cent of backlog accounts last year.
Presenting the committee’s review report on the Office of the Auditor General’s 2019 Annual Report, Mr Maharaj said there were 264 backlog accounts submitted to the OAG for audit as at July 31, 2019.
“Of which, 151 accounts has been audited and out of the 264 accounts audited, there were 186 accounts audited were in backlog,” he said.
The committee noted that the challenges in clearing the backlog accounts were;
The significant time taken to sign the audited financials;
The unavailability of key and responsible client personnel;
The untimely provision of records for audit verifications;
The unresolved accounting issues; The late submission of draft financial for audit; and
The resources being tied up to undertake backlogged audits.
Mr Maharaj said it was important to note that the OAG was funded through an annual appropriation by Parliament which enables it to fulfil its audit mandate on public sector entities.
In the 2018-2019 Financial Year, the OAG received an allocation of $6,623,600 compared to $4,612,843 in the 2017-2018 financial year which was an increase of 43.6 per cent.
Debate on the contents of the report will be done at a future Parliament sitting.