Grenada’s Audit Department has initiated a significant campaign to overhaul its reporting procedures, seeking to bypass ministerial channels and submit audited financial statements directly to Parliament. This proposed constitutional and legislative reform aims to address chronic delays in the tabling of crucial financial documents.
Gary Walters, Director of Audit, revealed that his department is advocating for amendments to the Audit Act that would eliminate the current requirement for audited statements of statutory bodies and government-supported agencies to be routed through the Minister for Finance. Instead, these documents would proceed directly from the Audit Department to Parliament.
‘The existing constitutional framework mandates that the Director of Audit submits reports to the Minister for Finance, who then tables them in Parliament,’ Walters explained during a Public Accounts Committee awareness seminar. ‘The persistent challenge has been that reports delivered to the Ministry of Finance frequently fail to be presented to Parliament in a timely manner.’
The seminar, chaired by Opposition Leader Emmalin Pierre, brought together members of both parliamentary houses to clarify institutional roles, reduce misunderstandings, and foster a culture of accountability through improved record-keeping, financial controls, and reporting practices.
Walters emphasized that the proposed change would eliminate perceptions of Audit Department inefficiency while ensuring greater transparency. ‘Such a significant adjustment will not only require legislative changes but also Constitutional Reform,’ he noted, adding that the modification would serve Grenada’s best interests by preventing lengthy delays in the presentation of public fund audits.
The current legal framework requires statutory bodies to submit financial and annual reports to the Audit Department by the end of the first quarter, with parliamentary tabling mandated by June each year. However, compliance with these deadlines has been consistently inadequate across most statutory bodies over recent years.