Tancoo – Imbert forced to lay Auditor General’s Report

After all of his antics and misinformation, including character assassination under parliamentary cover by himself and the Attorney General, Finance Minister Colm Imbert has now realized that he has no choice, and is now forced to lay the Auditor General’s Report for the Financial year 2023.

This is the view expressed by Opposition MP and shadow Minister of Finance Dave Tancoo, who said, “two weeks ago, in a press briefing, I reminded the Minister, for free, of his legal obligation to lay the Auditor General’s Report on the Public Accounts of T&T for the financial year ended September 30, 2023. In light of this sudden 180-degree turn by Imbert, I challenge him to provide the legal advice on which he relied, paid for by taxpayers, to refuse to lay the Report in the Parliament on Friday April 26, 2024, when called upon by the Hon. Speaker of the House to do so.”

Tancoo asserts, “If no such recommendation by counsel was made, then the Finance Minister was simply grandstanding and worse, attempting to use the Parliament to bully the Auditor General, Ms. Jaiwantie Ramdass, to make unsubstantiated and secret changes to her Report, which had already been dutifully prepared and submitted in accordance with her constitutional mandate.”

The Oropouche West MP states, “For the past three (3) weeks, this country has looked on at the astounding antics of the Minister of Finance and the Attorney General as they attempted to coerce the Auditor General to put an additional $3.4 BILLION in Revenue into her Report. What followed since, is a tragedy of epic proportions.”

Minister Imbert has now admitted that his Ministry (Finance) submitted a backdated statement of revenue which reflected a new figure but with a false date of submission. When this was raised by the Auditor General, Imbert used the Parliament to heap scorn on the allegation and insisted that an investigation was needed.

Today, the Auditor General stands vindicated as Imbert has been forced to admit that the document that was submitted by his Ministry was fraudulent, as it bore a wrong date purporting to have been submitted at the end of January when in fact, it was submitted months later.

But that was not the only “flaw”. A subsequent letter was issued by Imbert’s Ministry, again demanding the Auditor General increase the Revenue figure but this time with a completely different figure of $2. 6 BILLION and not the $3.4 BILLION previously demanded because by the Ministry’s own admission, they could not provide documents to prove their claim.

According to Tancoo, “Had the Auditor General not demand justification but instead conceded, giving in to the Ministry’s provocations, in the first instance she would have been guilty of breaching accounting standards. Further, given the failure of the Ministry to provide evidence to substantiate increased revenue of $3.4 BILLION as originally demanded, she would have also been complicit in a fraud perpetuated by high office holders in Government.”

To date, Minister Imbert has failed to explain how this increased revenue of $3.4 Billion was arrived at.

Tancoo submits that perhaps the most telling issue citizens need to note is that Imbert has not commented on claims that he personally called the Auditor General, making demands of her. If this is true and Minister Imbert is yet to deny it, then his own role in this incident should be investigated. This is especially so, since Imbert himself said both in the Parliament and outside that he has no role in the conflict, seeking instead to throw public servants under the bus.

Further, the Minister has been completely silent on the findings in the Report that there are no supporting documents to explain over ONE BILLION DOLLARS in money spent last year. This must be a matter of grave concern.

The Opposition’s shadow on Finance says that while Minister Imbert continues to compound his many mistakes through an ill-conceived attack on the Auditor General, taxpayers of Trinidad and Tobago are being taken for a ride to support Imbert’s egotistical agenda.

Tancoo complained that, “It is taxpayers that are being forced to pay Lord alone knows how much money to finance Imbert’s ego ride. My constituents of Oropouche West are without water for 3 to 4 weeks, firemen are handicapped in dealing with fires because of a lack of breathing apparatus and leaking hoses, the Police Service is understaffed and police officers are not sufficiently equipped to do their jobs, but instead of spending on these critical matters that will benefit the average citizen, our tax dollars are being spent on a witch hunt.”

According to the Opposition MP, “Again, the facts do not seem to support Minister Imbert’s claims and on this basis, if there is anybody that should be investigated, it is the Minister of Finance, Colm Imbert. In the interim, as Chairman of the Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, I look forward to receiving a copy of those Public Accounts, the Auditor General’s Report and public scrutiny of its contents.”