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BoT reports not doctored - CAG
2007-12-24 09:54:17
By Guardian Reporter
The Controller and Auditor General, Ludovick Utouh, has categorically denied that the BoT Audit reports forwarded to his office have been doctored.
In a statement issued to the media yesterday, he stated: ``I wish to assure leaders of political parties and my fellow Tanzanians that such an occurrence is impossible.
The CAG’s office is fully autonomous. It abides to international laws, regulations and standards of the accounting and auditing profession.``
Utouh said the task was undertaken by an international audit firm, Ernst & Young, which had employed experts from several countries, including the UK, Kenya, South Africa, Japan and Tanzania.
``The investigations have been conducted professionally in conformity with international auditing specifications,`` he said.
Reacting to allegations of suspicion as to why Ernst and Young had sent the report to his office and why he had been ``sitting” on them for weeks, the CAG said: ``This is a normal procedure of undertaking an auditing task, bearing in mind that I was the one who commissioned Ernst &Young to undertake the work on my behalf.``
He said in view of the significance of the two reports “it is wise to ensure that its contents are accurate.``
The CAG further stated that the auditors had been commissioned to investigate the BoT’s EPA Account, and the terms of reference had also instructed Ernst & Young to review BoT’s audited books for the year 2005/6, a task that was earlier undertaken by TAC Associates in collaboration with the CAG’s office.
``The investigators were supposed to submit two different reports, one on the EPA Account and the other being a review of the 2005/6 audited accounts,`` he said.
Utoah said that in November 2007, his office announced that it had received a draft report on the EPA Account from Ernst & Young, ``which was returned to them after it had been worked upon by the CAG’s office,`` so that a final report could be prepared.
``I am now announcing officially that I received the final reports from Ernst & Young on Sunday, December 23, 2007. I am currently going through them so as to verify their accuracy before submitting them to President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete in early January, upon completion of his leave,`` Utouh said.
``I want to give an assurance that the reports will be handed over to the President in the same form as they had been presented to me by the investigators,`` he concluded.
Last week, the national chairman of Chama cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo, Freeman Mbowe, called on the government to make the audit report on alleged misuse of Bank of Tanzania funds public.
Mbowe said the government had earlier promised to make the report public soon after it was submitted but did not do so.
``We know for sure that the long silence means that various faults and problems have been discovered and the CAG`s office might be conveniently doctoring the findings,`` he said.
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