FORMER ministers in the ministry of finance Vasant Bharath and Mariano Browne have questioned the rationale behind Finance Minister Colm Imbert’s announcement of an independent investigation into an understatement of revenue in the 2023 public financial statements.
Bharath and Browne raised their questions on May 13, one day after an attorney representing Auditor General Jaiwantie Ramdass issued a pre-action protocol letter to Imbert, calling on him to cancel or recall this investigation by 4 pm on May 15.
Imbert announced Cabinet’s decision to appoint this team during a virtual news conference hosted by his ministry on May 7.
Bharath said, “I do not believe that the minister of finance has any authority whatsoever to investigate/probe the Office of the Auditor General. In fact there is no such provision in the Constitution so to do as that is an independently enshrined office in the Constitution.”
But he added that Imbert can direct that an investigation be conducted into matters giving rise to to the $2.6 billion shortfall of revenue and subsequent divergent stories between the Central Bank and Board of Inland Revenue (BIR) on this matter.
Bharath said it appears that efforts to sway the Auditor General privately and by legal letter, on this issue have failed. He claimed this points to a continued overreach by several government ministers into independent institutions of state.
“It is a practice that it harmful and destructive to our democracy.”
Browne said three out of five terms of reference of the investigating team now focus on what has become a court matter.
“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 it.
“What was the response of the Auditor General to the efforts of the public officials described above and what action did the Auditor General take in relation to the understatement of revenue in the audit of the public accounts for financial year 2023?
“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?”
Browne said the inference here could be that “the purpose of the probe is to allocate blame and criticism in what has now become a battle in the court of public opinion.”
Cabinet ministers, he said, can make statements in Parliament which the Auditor General cannot defend herself against. In such a scenario, Brown said a possible defence the Auditor General could turn to is that the probe is in breach of section 121 of the Constitution.
Section 121 (1) says, “Subject to the provisions of this Constitution, power to appoint persons to hold or act in offices to which this section applies, incl
