Auditor General Says Ministries Treat Records as Afterthought

The Auditor General says the problem is bigger than shredded documents. Maria Rodriguez is pointing to a deeper weakness in government: poor record keeping across ministries. She says flawed documentation makes it harder for her office to track public spending and hold officials accountable. And according to Rodriguez, the backlog in annual audit reports only makes things worse. She believes some ministries are not taking financial records seriously because the system is already years behind. In her view, that delay has helped create a culture where proper documentation is treated as an afterthought.

 

Maria Rodriquez, Auditor General

“As we have been informing through our last three audit reports, the documentation process or the recording keeping process is not a good one in the government system at this point. So, it is difficult to go through records that are at a bad point or do not exist. It is a systematic issue. I think that considering how far we are behind we are with annual statements, nobody is saying well audit is not coming. The statements are not forthcoming, so nobody is really concerned about the records. It is a systematic issue and ten years records take up a lot of space. So, ministries are running out of space to put there records and keep their records, so by the time we reach it will be in a storeroom with no light, with no AC and the records get damaged. There is mold. There are times that we would ask for originals for example and I know that this is an issue because a law has passed that photocopies should be accepted in court. But for us primary information is best. A photocopy could be manipulated. A photocopy could be, we have seen instances, during our audit that the photocopy says something and the original says something else. So it is important to get primary information.”

 

For context, the last submitted annual audit report was for 2017-2018, leaving almost nine years of financial records yet to be audited.

 

Auditor General Says Findings Often Stay Hidden

 

Auditor General Maria Rodriguez says the real frustration is not only doing the audits, but what happens afterward. Her office uncovers questionable financial practices, but the public does not always get to see the findings. Rodriguez says that lack of transparency weakens accountability and keeps Belizeans in the dark.

 

Maria Rodriquez, Auditor General

“This is why we are trying to submit a Cabinet paper for things to change. We need to work out there. The public needs to know what we have found. I strongly believe that if the public was aware of all the findings we have done for the past ten years there would be someone, someone who would say, you know what my name is out there, I need to do better.”

 

Paul Lopez

“So, don’t this information just release the information?”

 

Maria Rodriquez

“I can’t. Protocol has to be followed, procedures have to be followed and I am bound by the Finance and Audit Act, section fifteen where it clearly states that my annual report has to go with an audit certification, which is the opinion of the annual statements, along with a compilation of the audits I did for that year. We are doing our work. We are reporting when reporting needs to happen and we have to make changes and lobby for changes and I go back to this request, ensuring that our work is made public. Now, my staff will say well  Ms. Maria, nobody knows what we find unless it is leaked, unless it is and I say to them that is why we are heading to this change. We want this change. And if we don’t get it, we know we attempted this change and we asked for it. Keeping quiet and saying ok well that’s what the FARA says, does not go well with me.”

 

Notably, under Rodriquez’s leadership the Office of the Auditor General has been working diligently to clear the backlogs. But even in the face of diligence, it will take several years before annual audit reports are up to date.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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