Minister of Local Government, Mr Kellawan Lall boasts in a letter (‘Minister of Local Government called in Auditor General’ SN, March 3) that the investigation currently being carried out by the Auditor General into alleged financial irregularities by Region 4 personnel was done on his “explicit instructions.”
Perhaps Mr Lall is unaware of Article 223 of the Constitution which states: “In the exercise of his functions under this Constitution, the Auditor General shall not be subject to the direction or control of any person or authority.”
While no minister should be excused for ignorance of the constitution, it is absolutely unacceptable for the Auditor General (ag) to act on such instructions. But that is what Mr Sharma did. As Mr Lall further proudly announced in the letter, the Auditor General has since submitted to him a preliminary report.
Unfortunately, this is not the first time that the Auditor General has acted on political instructions, with the flood money and the Polar Beer scam being prominent cases. All the talk about transparency and accountability amounts to nothing until we appoint a qualified person as the Auditor General and deal with the egregious case of conflict of interest between the Ministry of Finance and the Audit Office.