Reference is made to Stabroek News (SN) editorial of April 19, 2024, with the caption “Tepui Contract and Corruption”. The editorial sought to make a case of “corruption” by linking Mr. Mikhail Rodrigues, owner of Tepui, to the Vice President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo. According to the editorial, Tepui was awarded a contract due to his “…ease of access to the Vice President”. In so doing, the SN editorial effectively pardoned the evaluation committee, and transferred the blame to the Vice President.
I was involved in the review of the referenced contract at the level of the Procurement Commission (PPC), and none of the evaluation criteria states that you need “access to government officials”. In fact, everyone has access to Government officials, not only one person. The Vice President especially is easily accessible to the entire population. One just has to pay attention to the community outreaches, and as General Secretary of his party, citizens are afforded the opportunity to meet with him at the party’s headquarters.
But that aside, if SN’s logic is to be accepted, then by their (SN) logic and reasoning, one can conclude that SN is involved in corrupt activities―whereby that media entity is likely defrauding the State of tens of millions in taxes. Now, let me demonstrate.
It is public knowledge that Ram and McRae’s accounting firm, a firm that is co-owned and operatedby Mr. Lalbachan Christopher Ram is the auditor for SN for years. Mr. Ram is also a columnist for SN.
I have not so long ago established that Ram & McRae has been found to be engaging in unethical auditing practices (see link here for ease of reference. https://guyanachronicle.com/2024/01/15/ethical-issues-in-audit-practices-external-auditors-independence-audit-assurance-quality-tax-implications/
In particular, I had pointed out that pursuant to theInternational Accounting and Auditing Standards Board (IAASB) code of ethics which states that “key audit partners of public interest entities to change (or “rotate”) after seven (7) years (maximum)”.
Ram & McRae has been the auditor of Republic Bank (Guyana) Limited for more than 15 years, which is a violation of the very code of ethics that auditors ought to rigidly comply with to assure the integrity of financial statements. It should be noted that the IAASB standard was adopted by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Guyana (ICAG), to regulate the ethical conduct of accounting/auditing firms in Guyana.
Therefore, with the aforementioned in mind, by SN’s own reasoning and logic, I would like to pose the following questions:
- How long has Ram & McRae been their auditor? Is SN complicit in another similar violation by retaining the same audit firm for more than seven (7) years?
- Is SN complicit in defrauding the State tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions in taxes perhaps?
- Would SN hold itself to the same degree of accountability and transparency, and sacrosanct conduct that it is staunchly advocating for by disclosing the answers to these questions?
These are pertinent questions for the benefit of SN’s readers since a number of issues were uncovered regarding the audited financial statements that Ram & McRae produced for Republic Bank Limited, that I had highlighted in my article (see link above).