IC concerned Parliamentarians do not know the law after Warmington’s audit call

KINGSTON, Jamaica — The Integrity Commission (IC) says it is concerned that there are Parliamentarians who continue to exhibit a clear lack of knowledge, or understanding, of the very laws that they are elected to write.

The commission was responding to comments by the Government Member of Parliament (MP) Everald Warmington during Tuesday’s sitting of the Standing Finance Committee of the House of Representatives. The MP told the committee that the financial and accounting affairs of the Integrity Commission have not been audited for years.

“We haven’t seen an audit of that department (the Integrity Commission) tabled in this House, but they are spending taxpayers’ money,” Warmington told the House.

In addressing the Finance Minister, Dr Nigel Clarke, Warmington further stated, “I am saying, minister, that we (must) get an audit report from that department before the next financial year. There is no way that we are going to approve another $2 billion for a department that has not been audited for years. OK. So, I expect that the audit be laid here before March next year.”

Dr Clarke, responded to the MP’s comments stating, “I don’t think any reasonable person could object to your requirements. These are public funds. And I have no reason to expect that that’s a difficult proposition.”

In a statement on Wednesday, while noting that it is clear some Parliamentarians do not read the reports of the Integrity Commission that are routinely tabled in the House of Representatives, the Integrity Commission sought to make the following clarifications:

(1)  The accounting and financial affairs of the Integrity Commission have been audited every year in its six years of existence. The audits, in each case, have been conducted by an independent external auditor whose appointment has been approved, in writing, by the minister of finance himself;

(2)   The Audited Financial Statements of the commission have been formally submitted to and tabled in Parliament, in each of those six years, as a part of the commission’s annual reports;

(3)   For the avoidance of doubt, the Annual Audits of the Commission have been conducted pursuant to and in compliance with Section 20(1) of the Integrity Commissions Act (ICA), which provides that “the commission shall keep proper accounts of its receipts, payments, assets and liabilities, and such accounts shall be audited annually by an auditor appointed each year by the commission with the approval of the minister (of finance),”;

(4)   Section 20(1) of the ICA further provides that the statements of accounts so audited shall form part of the annual report of the commission which, in turn, is required to be submitted to Parliament within three months of the ending of each fiscal year;

(5)   In respect of the 2023/2024 Fiscal Year ended March 31, 2024, the commission’s annual report, inclusive of the audited and signed financial statements for that fiscal year, was submitted to Parliament on June 26, 2024. The report was formally tabled in the House of Representatives on July 9, 2024;

(6)   The Integrity Commission Parliament Oversight Committee, of which Warmington is a member, met with the commission for several hours Tuesday morning. One of the stated purposes of the meeting was to review the 2023/2024 Annual Report of the Commission, inclusive of the commission’s Audited Financial Statements for the 2023/2024 Fiscal Year. The Audited Financial Statements appear in the last 31 pages of the annual report; and

(7)   The letter which approved the appointment of an Independent External Auditor to audit the accounts and financial affairs of the Integrity Commission for Fiscal Year 2023/2024, was signed by the Minister of Finance, Dr Nigel Clarke, on April 24, 2024.