AUDITOR'S SPECIAL REPORT TO BE LAID TOMORROW

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After a short recess, it's back to business for parliamentarians as sittings of the upper and lower houses resume tomorrow. Questions will be asked, debate will take place and importantly papers will be laid. As Urvashi Tiwari-Roopnarine tells us the auditor General's special report will be made public.

Transcript

00:00The Senate meets at 10 a.m. and the House of Representatives will meet at 1.30 in the

00:06afternoon.

00:07The order papers released by the Parliament for both Houses indicate among papers to be

00:12laid in both Houses is the Auditor General's special report.

00:18This report is a follow-up to the 2003 report and is expected to address the over $2.6 billion

00:25understatement in the substantive document.

00:29Following the debacle involving the 2023 report, the Finance Minister in Parliament

00:34criticised Auditor General Jaywanti Ramdas for not accepting data substantiating the

00:41billions in question after the deadline date and refusing to meet with ministry officials.

00:47Ramdas contended the deadlines had passed, the documents were backdated and when her

00:53team conducted a two-day visit to the Treasury, the information could not be supplied.

00:58The minister at that time refused to lay her report and instead brought a bill to Parliament

01:04to extend her deadline.

01:06A change of heart later saw the laying of the report and a commitment that the special

01:11report will be compiled.

01:13In the meanwhile, Minister Imbood sought to launch a probe to determine exactly what happened.

01:19The investigative committee led by retired Judge David Harris was to conduct a probe

01:25into Ramdas and her office.

01:27But that probe was put on hold after the Appeal Court in June this year ruled Ramdas does

01:34have a case to be heard.

01:36She contended the investigation into her office is unconstitutional and illegal because neither

01:42the Finance Minister Kom Imbood nor the Cabinet has jurisdiction to probe the conduct of the

01:49Auditor General.

01:50Ramdas was appointed to office in November 2023.

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