But, while she promises an objective audit—can the integrity of the audit be undermined by incomplete documentation? In the past we have heard the Auditor-General testify at Public Accounts Committee hearings that there is a shocking lack of proper record keeping in the public service. So how will that affect this audit where there were thousands of sub-$10,000 transactions? We asked her:
Jaleeza Roberts, Reporter
"And so when you testified before the Joint Public Accounts Committee, you referred to an absence of source documents transactions. Is it a chronic problem? And has your team been encountering this problem so far in this audit?"
Maria Rodriguez, Auditor-General - Office of the Auditor-General
"In this audit, yes. I think in every audit we will find some documents missing, some document not available, but it has been a chronic issue—not only for the Ministry of Defence, for almost all the ministries we have been. Nobody has been paying attention to records management, and we have highlighted this even for the Accountant General's Department. We should have custody of all records, no? So, it is not a difficult situation now, because we have ways of conducting our audit and finding records, and that's why I mentioned earlier other entities that can provide us with other information."
Jaleeza Roberts
"Do you think some of these missing documents, it was intentional that they are missing, or?"
Maria Rodriguez
"I don't believe so. I think it is a systematic issue in every ministry; we just don't care about records. Nobody expects audit to come, and when audit comes, that is when they get shocked: ‘Oh, we need the records,' you know? So, it is basically a systematic problem for the entire public service."
