Auditor General Jaiwantie Ramdass' report on T&T's 2023 accounts has detailed her side of the story on the controversy concerning the accounts - carrying a disclaimer that the department was unable to obtain sufficient evidence to form an opinion on whether all revenue has been fully accounted for.
This is carried in the report which was laid in Parliament yesterday by Finance Minister Colm Imbert.
The report stated that the Auditor General did not express an opinion on the Public Accounts of T&T for the financial year ended September 30, 2023.
"Because of the significance of the matters described in the Basis for Disclaimer of Opinion section of my report, I have not been able to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence to provide a basis for an audit opinion on these Public Accounts," the Auditor General said.
The basis for disclaimer of opinion was, "I was unable to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence to form an opinion on whether all revenue has been fully accounted for and included in the Public Accounts. I was unable to determine whether any additional adjustments might have been found necessary in respect of recorded or unrecorded revenue. As a result, the completeness and accuracy of actual revenue could not be ascertained."
The report stated that Section 24 of the Act requires the Treasury to submit to the Auditor General its public accounts by January 31st in each year, or a longer period and Section 25 of the Act requires the Auditor General to examine and audit, prepare and transmit to the Finance Minister, a report upon his examination by April 30th in each year.
The report stated that the public accounts submitted by Treasury on January 31st, 2024, were recalled and the Auditor General received amended public accounts from the Treasury on April 16th, 2024.
"These public accounts were received beyond the 31st January, 2024 statutory deadline," Ramdass said.
In an addendum to the report, the Auditor General detailed what occurred.
The report also detailed issues the Opposition had revealed from the report, and cited numerous other issues in ministries/agencies' operations.
Timeline of incident
* The Auditor General received the Public Accounts on January 31, 2024, from the Finance Ministry.
* The Public Accounts was thereafter audited in accordance with Section 25(1) of the Act in preparation for the transmission of the Report of the Auditor General by the statutory deadline of April 30, 2024 to the Speaker, the President of the Senate and the Minister of Finance.
* Almost two months after the Section 24(1) submission deadline of January 31, 2024, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance on 25th March 2024 informed the Auditor General verbally that an error was discovered in the Public Accounts and revenue was understated.
* Via memorandum dated March 28, 2024, under the caption “Report on Variance in the Statement of Revenue for the year ended September 2023”, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance, advised the Auditor General of a variance in the Statement of Revenue submitted on January 31st, 2024. A request was made to allow an amendment to this statement, as the variance represented a material amount to the value of $3,379,777,908.00.
* At this date, the Ministry of Finance indicated that an amount to the value of $2,598,130,761.72 was reconciled and an unexplained difference of $781,647,146.28 existed.
* On April 9, 2024, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance confirmed that the reconciliation process was completed and the variance in the Statement of Revenue was $2,598,130,761.72 and the variance in the Green Fund Levy was $1,147,427.01, giving a total variance of $2,599,278,188.73. A remaining balance of $780,499,791.27 appeared to be not reconciled.
* On April 16, 2024, the Ministry of Finance recalled its previously submitted Public Accounts and subsequently transmitted its Amended Public Accounts for audit on said date. Appendix 2 to this Report is relevant.
* As far as the Auditor General is aware, no resolution was taken by Parliament for the extension of the submission period.
* This Amended Public Accounts showed a Statement of Revenue figure of $64,488,503,781.94.
* The Public Accounts dated January 31, 2024, showed a Statement of Revenue figure of $61,890,373,020.22, resulting in a major adjustment to revenue by
$2,598,130,761.72.
* Despite the Audit being completed, the audit staff was sent to the Ministry of Finance to examine and gather sufficient audit evidence to ensure that all required adjustments with regard to this material misstatement of Revenue were verified and properly recorded in the accounting books and records.
* The increase of $2,598,130,761.72 in the Statement of Revenue and the increase of $1,147,427.01 in the Green Fund Levy could not be verified since supporting documents were not produced for audit examination.
* It was noted that the accounting books and records of the Ministry of Finance were not adjusted to reflect the increases shown above.
* As a result, an opinion could not be formed on the Amended Public Accounts for the year ended September 30, 2023. Hence, a Disclaimer of Opinion was issued since the auditee did not provide sufficient evidence in the form of documentation on which to base an audit opinion.
* It was concluded that the possible effects on the Public Accounts as a whole of undetected misstatements could be both material and pervasive.