00:00In its written judgement, dated January 28th, the Privy Council details its reasons for
00:06granting leave to the Auditor General to seek judicial review of a Cabinet-appointed committee
00:11investigating her claim of a misstatement of revenue in the 2023 public accounts.
00:17The Privy Council says the Auditor General's case is arguable, with a realistic prospect
00:23of success.
00:24In its judgement, the Law Lords question why the state would have attempted to prevent
00:29the ventilation of the matter in court, saying,
00:32It might be thought that public confidence in the appellants would be strengthened if
00:36the allegations are found to be without merit, but if there is no investigation, the allegations
00:42do not simply disappear.
00:44On the contrary, they may simply grow louder in volume.
00:49The Privy Council noted that while the appellants failed to bring forward a good argument for
00:53the Court of Appeals' decision to be reversed, the Auditor General's concern of bias is
00:58reasonable given that the Minister of Finance not only recommended the investigation, but
01:04also selected and recommended the investigation team, said the investigation's terms of reference,
01:10is responsible for remuneration of the investigation team, and has required that the investigation
01:16team report to him.
01:19The Privy Council goes further to note that notwithstanding Minister Inboot's own role
01:23as Minister of the Department responsible for the understatement of revenue, his conduct
01:29is not targeted for investigation in any of the terms of reference, whereas the conduct
01:35of the Auditor General is.
01:37The Privy Council says it is arguable that this has the appearance of a one-sided investigation
01:43seeking to deflect attention or blame away from the Minister.
01:48The Privy Council also points out that while the investigation team is not tasked with
01:52investigating whether the Auditor General should be removed from office, there remains
01:57the possibility that the investigation team's report might be the first step in a sequence
02:02of measures culminating in her removal through other means.
02:07In her argument, the Auditor General also contends that the investigation is unlawful
02:12because it constitutes interference with the independence of her role, a point which the
02:18Privy Council also deemed arguable.
02:20The matter will next be heard at Ohio Court on May 12.
02:24Renassa Katting, TV6 News.
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