In accordance with Section 29 of the Financial Administration and Audit (FAA) Act, the Auditor General may undertake special audits based on requests from stakeholders, including members of Parliament (MP). These audits are consistent with the Department’s mission to ‘ensure that public sector financial transactions and other operations comply with the wishes of Parliament, relevant laws and regulations, and are conducted with due regard to economy, efficiency, effectiveness, the environment and the avoidance of fraud’.

Six special audits were undertaken for 2016 calendar year, as detailed below:

1. Urban Development Corporation (UDC): Divestment of the Oceana Hotel Complex
2. Ministry of Finance and the Public Service (MoFPS):  Lease of sections of the Oceana Hotel Complex ground floor for use by the Accountant General’s Department (AGD) and renovation works
3. Ministry of Finance and the Public Service: Noranda Bauxite Limited – Expired Letter of Credit
4. Ministry of Labour and Social Security:  Corporate Governance
5. Aeronautical Telecommunications Limited:  Corporate Governance
6. INSPORTS:  Corporate Governance

These audits identified weak governance practices and breaches of the Public Bodies Management & Accountability (PBMA) Act, GoJ Corporate Governance and Accountability Frameworks, Government Procurement Guidelines and Circulars issued by the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service (MoFPS).  We estimated financial exposure of $1.33 billion on the public coffers due to poor governance decisions and $313 million in respect of breaches of the PBMA Act and GoJ Procurement Guidelines.