Office of Auditor General celebrates 10th anniversary |16 July 2020
Auditor General Gamini Herath
‘Fraud, waste, abuse cannot be tolerated’
“We will not tolerate extravagance, fraud, waste, abuse and misappropriation of public funds in government bodies.”
Auditor General Gamini Herath recently made this striking statement in an interview with Seychelles NATION to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Office of the Auditor General (OAG), an autonomous statutory body established under the Auditor General Act which came into force on July 7, 2010.
Ten years on and the OAG has been able to push itself into the limelight, collectively effecting change in public administration and accounts with partners such as the Finance and Public Accounts Committee (FPAC) in the National Assembly.
From its inception up to 2016, the OAG was headed by Auditor General Marc Benstrong until his sudden death in December 2016. Mr Herath was subsequently appointed as Auditor General in 2017.
As it stands presently, the OAG derives its mandate to audit ministries, agencies, government bodies and accounts as well as public enterprises from Article 158 (5) of the Constitution.
Prior to its existence, some of its functions were being undertaken by the audits department under the purview of State House.
The creation of the OAG in 2010 granted the auditor general autonomy and the framework in which he operates received official standing as a fully-fledged statutory body.
“Before the office came to being there was confusion in regards to the audits department. Most people did not know whether it was part of the Ministry of Finance or the State House, or part of another ministry,” Mr Herath explained.
“When the Auditor General bill was taken to the National Assembly in 2010, it was President Danny Faure who presented and made the case for its approval as the then finance minister. So the president gave his blessing from day one, and continued to do so by letting it operate effectively and independently.”
The establishment of the OAG, as the country’s supreme audit institution, also stemmed from the international pressure from national and multi-national development partners such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) that were helping Seychelles in restructuring its economy and financial system following the 2008 recession.
“In 2008 the country embarked on the economic reform and the reform package entailed certain conditions to improve on good governance, accountability and transparency. As a result we saw a number of new laws that were passed to create new institutions, and where an institution existed it was given more autonomy and powers to operate independently.”
Some of the institutions that were created and empowered include the National Tender Board and the Procurement Oversight Unit.
“Although there are no provisions for an office of the auditor general in the Constitution, it does make provision for the state to appoint an auditor general. But a Constitutional provision in itself is not enough without a subsidiary law; this is why it was necessary to create a body with certain powers that would support the work of the auditor general,” Mr Herath further explained.
The Auditor General Act (2010) was drafted using international best practices, and the OAG is now a member of the International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) and its sub-organisation for the African region, AFROSAI.
The OAG’s autonomy and independence from the government branches is so paramount that its budget is not decided by the ministry of finance.
“As per best practices, the ministry of finance cannot determine the budget for the OAG – that would be a conflict of interest and may put our work in jeopardy,” Mr Herath highlighted.
“So our budgeting procedure is to submit our budget requirements to the FPAC for examination and then the committee makes recommendations directly to the minister of finance. Therefore, we are not subjected to unnecessary budget controls.
The OAG is not only tasked with auditing the use of public funds in all ministries, government agencies but also national funds, government accounts and almost all of the state enterprises, so as to ensure compliance.
Some public enterprises such as the Islands Development Company (IDC) and Seychelles Trading Company (STC) are not audited by the OAG since the Companies Act, under which they operate, allows them to enlist private auditors.
As for the question of who audits the office of the auditor general, Mr Herath noted that this is done by an independent, non-government affiliated audit firm to avoid any conflict of interests.
Mr Herath explained that the Office of the Auditor General undertakes two types of audits – performance and financial audits – but noted that this was not always the case.
“Prior to this Act, the Auditor General did not have a legal framework to conduct performance audits of various public bodies. People may be familiar with financial audits but not so much with performance audits. In a nutshell, a performance audit is looking at economic efficiency and whether systems in place are achieving the objectives of an organisation.”
The OAG also undertakes special reports which are also submitted to the National Assembly.
Amongst its numerous reports which it produces throughout the year, the OAG is mandated to submit an annual report of the previous financial year to the Speaker of the National Assembly on or before December 31. This means that this year it would have to submit the annual report for 2019.
The report of the Auditor General may call attention to accounts that have not been properly managed, public money that cannot be accounted for, essential records that have not been maintained, and satisfactory procedures that have not been put in place to measure efficiency, amongst others.
“We are continuously working to improve on our standards and the works that we deliver are according to internationally recognised practices. Human resource always remains a challenge, because we have a limited number of people on the market who deals with auditing. Hence the reason why training has become an integral part of our operations.”
But has the OAG made an impact on how government funds are managed and utilised? According to Mr Herath, this question can be answered with a redounding ‘yes’.
“Over the last few years, we have seen great improvement in the manner in which public money is used because we have put pressure on organisations that were not performing well. We can now say that more than 90% of government bodies have demonstrated the willingness to perform better each year.”
“But we acknowledge that we could not have had this impact without the collective work we are undertaking with the FPAC of the National Assembly.”
He stressed that notable efforts have been made towards compliance to procurement and tender procedures.
“Much has been achieved during these 10 past years, but that does not mean we have to become complacent and sit on our laurels. As the youths say travay i la because the moment we relax, something might not go accordingly. We have to remain vigilant at all times and make our presence felt.”
“Good governance, transparency and accountability has no end, it is a process which can always be improved.”
Mr Herath concluded on a somber note by providing a quite dire warning to public servants:
“You can do something wrong today and not get caught in the act but your day will come. We are an omnipresent entity. Public funds are sacred and there should be no secrets surrounding it – if you are not keeping your records in order and so on, be aware that we are coming to look into all these.”
“With COVID-19 we have no room for extravagances in government bodies and we will not tolerate it. Abuse, waste and misappropriation of funds will not be tolerated.”
The OAG’s reports have led to further investigations by the police force and the Anti-Corruption Commission, as well as to legal proceedings against public servants.
Elsie Pointe
