OROPOUCHE West MP Davendranath Tancoo has claimed that the independent investigation announced by Finance Minister Colm Imbert into the understatement of revenue for the last financial year and other related matters is a witch hunt against Auditor General Jaiwantie Ramdass.
[caption id="attachment_1082465" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Auditor General Jaiwantie Ramdass. -[/caption]
Tancoo made this claim in a statement on May 8.
At a virtual news conference on May 7, Imbert announced Cabinet's appointment of a team to investigate this matter.
The team will be chaired by retired High Court Justice David Harris.
Other members of the team include David C Benjamin, a former audit director at the Auditor General's department and information technology (IT) specialists.
The team is expected to report to Imbert within two months.
Imbert said great care was taken to select members of this team who are beyond reproach and eliminate any perception that the investigation into this matter is not independent.
He explained the process he used to select the team which was approved by Cabinet.
To lead the team, Imbert said, "I decided that I wanted to have somebody beyond reproach to chair the committee or the investigation team."
He decided the best person to perform this role was a retired judge.
"Somebody at the highest possible level in terms of integrity and in terms of competence and ability."
Harris fit the bill.
"He retired (from the Judiciary) just a couple months ago, a very highly respected High Court judge to be the chairman. I don't think there is any question there is any question that this retired judge could not be independent, would not determine the true facts."
Imbert said it was important to have another member of the team who is not an employee of his ministry.
"There are many employees in the ministry of finance who have worked at the Auditor General's department and have been promoted out of that department to become permanent secretaries, deputy permanent secretaries (in the ministry)."
He disclosed one permanent secretary and a deputy permanent secretary were former senior officials in the Auditor General's department.
"I didn't want to use somebody like that because there would be allegations of lack of partiality and bias. We did a search for someone who had never worked in the ministry of finance but preferably would have experience at a senior level in the Auditor General's department."
This was how Benjamin was selected. Imbert said the process took a while because of the intensive search, conflicts of interest and health issues.
Imbert said there was no question about the integrity of the IT professionals on the team.
"The IT consultants are actually from Norway. They are in no way associated with Trinidad and Tobago. They are completely impartial consultants."
In his statement, Tancoo rejected all of Imbert's comments about the independence of this team.
"This whole investigation is a witch-hunt against the independent Auditor General, upon whom they h
