Re­tired High Court Judge, Jus­tice David Har­ris, will lead a team rec­om­mend­ed by the Min­is­ter of Fi­nance to in­ves­ti­gate the un­der­state­ment of rev­enue for the fi­nan­cial year 2023 and re­lat­ed mat­ters.

Cab­i­net ap­proved the com­po­si­tion of the team, which will al­so in­clude David C. Ben­jamin, a for­mer Au­dit Di­rec­tor at the Au­di­tor Gen­er­al’s De­part­ment, and spe­cial­ists in In­for­ma­tion Tech­nol­o­gy.

The team has two months to re­port to the Min­is­ter of Fi­nance.

Ac­cord­ing to a state­ment by the Fi­nance Min­istry on Tues­day, the Terms of Ref­er­ence of the In­ves­ti­ga­tion will in­clude the fol­low­ing, in­ter alia:

a. 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

b. The ef­fi­ca­cy of the new Elec­tron­ic Cheque Clear­ing Sys­tem in­tro­duced by the Cen­tral Bank of Trinidad and To­ba­go in Feb­ru­ary 2023

c. 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 on same

d. What was the re­sponse of the Au­di­tor Gen­er­al to the ef­forts of the pub­lic of­fi­cials de­scribed at (c) above 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

e. 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

f. Any oth­er re­lat­ed mat­ters

g. Find­ings and Rec­om­men­da­tions go­ing for­ward.