San Juan/Barataria MP Saddam Hosein is calling for a police investigation of the public accounts for 2023 to find out what happened with the handing over of those accounts to the Office of the Auditor General.
He accused the People’s National Movement (PNM) of trying to attack every independent institution and claimed the Auditor General had been threatened and harassed in the current issue regarding attempts to include additional revenue in the Auditor General’s 2023 report.
At a UNC media conference yesterday, Hosein said there were reports of two statements dated January 31, 2024, with different figures—one with $61 billion in revenue and another with $64 billion, which accounted for the $3 billion difference.
“This means one of the accounts was backdated, so there must be some explanation why the Auditor General was given two different statements, both dated January 31st, 2024, both submitted at different times and both having different revenue figures,” he said.
“I heard the Finance Minister indicating they’ll launch an investigation into this. All they have to do is go into the dossier, based on the file at the ministry, pull up the correspondence and see exactly what was sent to the Auditor General’s office. This doesn’t call for any big investigation. It’s a simple matter to determine whether or not the accounts were in fact backdated.”
Hosein added, “And if what is said is true, that’s tantamount to fraud and misbehaviour in the public office. If true, how could you backdate T&T’s public accounts reflecting a revenue figure of $3.2 billion difference.”
Hosein said there was also another account dated April 16, 2024.
“So this matter calls not only for an internal investigation, but there must now be a police investigation into what occurred with respect to the handing over of these accounts to the Office of the Auditor General.”
Oropouche East MP Roodal Moonilal said it was the first time he had seen a deadline for the Auditor General pass and attempts made to submit items after. He said this undermined the credibility and integrity of financial information and has implications with the international community, as credit rating agencies monitor T&T’s financial and fiscal performances.
“They expect accuracy. Our ratings could drop if we don’t have properly accurate figures,” he said, adding all the accounts for previous years are now in question.
Noting that the mistake had been blamed on a new electronic system, Moonilal said there are software applications that reconcile data.
“So when Imbert says they forgot almost $3 billion due to digital chequing systems, that’s a cock and bull story. This is happening as they didn’t submit accurate information then sought to cook the books so T&T’s economy would look bright in an election year,” he claimed.