The Office of the Auditor General released an Integrated Annual Report on its operational activities for April 2018 to March 2019, which was presented to the Legislative Assembly on 29 July 2019.
Background
The Office of the Auditor General (OAG) performs external audit duties for the Government of Montserrat. In this regard, it assesses the performance of central government entities and some statutory agencies by looking into compliance with regulatory authorities and departmental policy directives; the stewardship over resources; and obtaining value for the monies expended. By reporting on the activities of government, as determined by their audits, they seek to promote accountability, transparency and good governance in public finance management.
Highlights
During the reporting year, 11 audit reports were tabled in the Legislative Assembly and were made available to the Public – three Financial Audits, two Information and Technology Audits, four Performance/Value for Money Audits and two Special Audits.
The OAG was not able to achieve their main strategic objective of gaining independence of their office during the fiscal year as international best practice requires an independent Audit Office. The final leg of this objective is beyond their control as it falls within the ambit of other government officials.
It is being reported that the Audit Office made significant strides toward strengthening the accountability and transparency of public service delivery through capacity building and conducting more special audits. However, most of the work areas were hampered mainly by slow or no responses from audit clients and intermittent network failures as the office is located off site and is connected to GOM’s servers via wireless link.
The Acting Auditor General, Ms Marsha Meade in her report publicly expressed her appreciation to the staff at the Treasury Department, all Accounting Officers and the staff of central government agencies, the staff of Statutory Agencies and other organizations, for any assistance given to the audit staff during the performance of the various audit assignments.
Ms Meade extended her appreciation to the GOM, its Learning and Development Unit, the DFID and other external agencies for their contributions toward the expansion of knowledge and skills. Finally, she applauded the staff at the OAG for their hard work, commitment and invaluable contribution over the reporting period and beyond.
The OAG report in its entirety can be found at the Montserrat Public Library or by visiting the Office of the
Auditor General Facebook Page or Online Publications at http://oag.gov.ms.
Download the OAG Annual Report here —> OAG Integrated Annual Report 2019
