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"content": "travesties in the Government, but to give them an opportunity to explain why those audit queries are there and, therefore, to find out whether they are culpable of any transgression in the exercise of their duties. Secondly, that, indeed, this was an issue that the two auditors could not understand and, therefore, if more light is thrown into the matter, the audit query can be resolved. Those are the two major options for which audit queries are brought before these two Committees of Parliament. These two Committees, after going through the State Corporations Act and the various Acts establishing the various State Corporations or the Constitution giving power to the various Government Ministries, and also after understanding the Powers and Privileges Act, should then query the respective civil servants on the audit queries. When audit queries, therefore, rests in the reports of the PAC or the PIC for too long and become historical documents, too much time is left for such queries to hang around the neck of the respective civil servants unnecessarily. Therefore, in the 1990s, we pushed for the reports to come urgently before the House, so that they can be resolved. However, it looks as if we still have not managed to catch up with the auditing and the bringing of the reports to the Committees, so that the queries can be addressed and answered promptly. This is something that should be addressed between the House and the Government, particularly the offices of the two auditors, so that the process of auditing can be done speedily and so that these audit queries can also be sorted out promptly with the public servants concerned. Noting that there is an audit query in any Government department or parastatal does not necessarily mean that there was a transgression. The extent of a transgression can only be established when you give the opportunity to the respective individuals to explain themselves to the two respective Committees and hence, for those Committees to find the opportunity to get more evidence, either from the auditors or the respective individuals about the queries raised. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, it was brought to my notice when I was the Chairman of the PIC for two consecutive years that one of the problems in both the Controller and Auditor-General’s office and the Auditor-General (Corporations) is lack of auditors. Secondly, these two offices are allowed to hire private auditors to help speed up their work. But one problem did arise that when the Government work is outsourced to the private sector, especially on issues of auditing which are very sensitive, to what extent are those private auditors bound by the Oath of Secrecy which civil servants are bound to? To what extent, are they immune from undue influence? If it is discovered that they are vulnerable to undue influence, what would the two offices do? This really requires that the Government should have well trained and enough auditors in the Government as internal auditors in the various Ministries, who can be used trans-departmentally in helping the Controller and Auditor-General as well as the Auditor-General (Corporations) to do their work. I say trans-departmentally because if a query is raised in the Ministry of Medical Services, it will not be good for the Controller and Auditor-General to use the auditors in that Ministry to help sort out the audit queries because they are insiders and, therefore, they may not have that independence in looking into those queries. We can do this trans-departmentally where internal auditors in the Ministry of Medical Services help in sorting out some audit queries in the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, so that we can capitalize and use our own internal resources knowing very well that as civil servants, they are bound by the Oath of Secrecy. We also bear the responsibility of ensuring that they work expeditiously within the timeframe that the Government expects to work in."
}