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Empower
the Auditor General Now,
we find a new scandal -- the VAT refunds scandal -- and the CID
probing to see if this too is linked with the issue of terrorism
in the country. On the one hand, the Auditor General has the same status as the Elections Commissioner or Supreme Court judges; while he is appointed by the President, he can be removed only by Parliament. The AG is wont to complain that, he is far from independent in administrative matters; he must report to the Ministry of Finance and his funds come from the Treasury, i.e. the Ministry of Finance. Therefore he must be in the good books of that Ministry to function effectively. The draft National Audit Act prepared during the UNP administration, when quite a lot of modern laws were drawn up - was alas, not implemented because Parliament was abruptly dissolved. The
National Audit Act (draft) provides the AG with powers to be independent
of the Executive (the Government), and responsible to Parliament
(which with all its faults remains the august house of the people's
representatives). It also allows the AG to issue reports to the media, making such issues public knowledge. (The VAT scam would have been arrested long ago, and millions, maybe billions saved had the AG's report been released to the media instead of gathering dust in the Inland Revenue Dept/Ministry of Finance). Also Parliament - and not the Finance Ministry -- will fund the Auditor General's Department (which will be known as the National Audit Office ). So, it is the responsibility of the political parties to implement such draft legislation. The UNP has a duty to push for these laws because it was under its stewardship that they were drafted. The JVP, the watchdogs of public funds in many ways and the ruling parties if they are for clean government as they always profess to be - must join hands too. There was another draft law approved by the UNP Cabinet that never saw the light of day i.e. the Freedom of Information Bill prepared by the Justice Ministry and the Attorney General with inputs from media organisations. This kind of law is found in countries where governments are interested in using the media to expose wrongdoings at an early stage and gives the public access to public information regarding public funds. Returning to the VAT issue, it is imperative that these investigations which the CID long dragged their feet on, claiming that the papers were never given to them by the Government (Inland Revenue Dept/Ministry of Finance ) are speeded up as a matter of national importance. The tentacles of this scandal seem to go deep - into political funds, politicians' pockets, acquisition of properties here and siphoning of these funds abroad. Whether it has even greater ramifications than what is now known is there to be unearthed. This is not a matter that the CID alone can handle. The Attorney General, considering protocol in government, should be able to summon/invite the Auditor General, some honest members of the Inland Revenue Dept., who seem to know a lot about who is upto what in that Department, but are under a kind of Omerta (a secrecy code) to join the CID in investigating and prosecuting this case. What the scandal did was turn the spotlight on the Auditor General whose role has long been to audit Government accounts, write a report and have it tabled in Parliament for everyone to forget. This is now passe. His office must play a pro-active role so that a few people do not cream the fat off this land while millions suffer. |
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