‘Audit Office-Haze, Maze, Who Get Fazed (And a Raise)’ -GHK Lall

By GHK Lall- From public productions, it seems that much is happening within Guyana’s reputable and venerable Audit Office. What is reportedly wrong, some of darkened condition; others within a twilight zone -grey and not good for Guyana. In a medicinal teaspoonful, a mere 5 milliliters, it’s about who is being promoted and protected (unfairly), and who is being publicly punishment (unjustly).

There’s a situation (the preferred word is problem). If these developments swirl in this country’s supposedly untouchable Audit Office, reasonable interpretation must be that Guyana is in a terrible place, worse than imagined. For what is a prestigious and sacred national Audit Office if not the last bastion of untainted effort, the foremost guardian of the Guyanese people assets and welfare. Their trust, too.

I appeal to Auditor General, Pandit Deodat Sharma to grace the people with appearance and word. Sorry, my people had family by the name of Pandit Deodat Sharma, so the association comes automatically. AG Sharma should clear the air about those who do not belong in elevated roles, whose heads are incapable of operating beyond a certain minimal level of competence.

I will not touch honesty and its fatter, stronger cousin, integrity. When competence is missing, then corners are usually cut. There is one paymaster-one set of people taken for yet another ride -Guyanese. When favors have been improperly granted, then there could be other favors that already occurred, but which still sleep underground, undisturbed and undetected.

Such as where to look in an audit, and where to know better and avoid: too many brigands may be stirred into action, and who knows the troubles unleashed, what consequences that could overwhelm. I believe that the Auditor General has his hands full, and his head full of ideas, on how to go about his work. Plus, a head filled with insights on how matters should be, because the territory demands so. Who am I to coach him on how to deal with audit projects on hand?

I have said on paper and on air that Guyana gets the right people, then the right jobs will be done. Uninhibited and unblemished by any untraceable inspirations. This public service, this personal gift, to AG Sharma will not be vulgarized by that ugly word, what starts with a capital P. My humble expectation is that the Audit Office, its people, and its practices, embody the essence of professionalism. No other p-word should apply, has place. In AG Sharma I have every confidence; as vested similarly, but not quite, in another AG. The one of rule of law, and not the rules of accounting or numbers.

On the one hand, the reports in the preferred channel of enlightenment in Guyana are about who came out of nowhere, other than by blood and friendship, and rose high. On the other, the vicious diatribes focused on a woman who has been an asset to the Audit Office for decades; the kind of devil’s advocate that AG Sharma needs most urgently. Why is she being putdown publicly, without any basis in fact?

It would be grievous, if it was because she spoke out and thwarted certain rich (but devious) developments in the Audit Office. Innocents are stripped and torn at the rack, while wastrels are rewarded and coddled. AG Sharma should have more than passing familiarity, with social media whippings that afflict one of his own. A general should always protect his privates. Against what profanes an ethical worker, what besmirches the entire Audit Office. When I saw the posts under the now dead and buried, but not forgotten, Stabroek News masthead dated April 7th, my reaction was immediate. This is one hell of an extended wake for a now lost pillar of Guyana.

I go back to the woman victimized by the public flogging. Her representations inside the Audit Office must have enraged someone. Someone with power and authority. I plead with AG Sharma: please help by clearing the air on her. It would cleanup the stench that envelops the vaunted Audit Office in a lingering, nauseating smog.

Were the Audit Office to falter, fumble, and fall then Guyana is grimness exemplified. Reports may lack substance. Findings that discredit the claim. Worse, a national institution suffering from the ‘runs’, all washed up and watery. Policies, procedures (and prayers) futile. AG Sharma, say something, please.