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Auditor General Pamela Monroe Ellis yesterday cleared up statements she made at last week's meeting of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) as to her absence from the entrance and exit interviews for a 2019 internal audit of her department conducted by the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service.
The Government's chief auditor also held her ground as she again came under fire from Government Members of Parliament (MP), specifically over a Gleaner report, which confirmed the date of the exit interview, and her absence from it.
The PAC members pressed Monroe Ellis for answers regarding the newspaper story published yesterday, with MP for St Catherine South Eastern Robert Miller demanding the name of the journalist who had contacted her from The Gleaner.
Monroe Ellis declined to name the reporter, while insisting that she had not given an interview, and had only confirmed with the individual the date of the exit meeting.
"I am not going to provide that information. I generally do not provide information at the committee when names are asked. If the member wants to know, then a letter can be written and I will provide the information, but I believe that you can also contact the Jamaica Gleaner for that information," she said.
But MP for St James Central Heroy Clarke bristled at the response.
"Parliament supersedes all courts, and when madam auditor general is going to say if a letter is written then she will find it necessary to answer... what madam is doing is simply casting a lot more darkness and shadows over the questions that are being asked; leaves us to believe that there is something that cannot be said or she doesn't want to share," he said.
However, Opposition MP Morais Guy argued that there was nothing unique about a media entity digging deeper into matters that arise in Parliament, pointing to other issues from the PAC which journalists have investigated.
"To ask the AG who was it from The Gleaner she spoke to does not have any probative value. To what extent would the members of this committee need that information? Why is it that we are seeking to determine who it was that spoke to the AG on this particular matter?" Guy asked.
No sources were named in The Gleaner article, and parliamentary staff intervened to confirm that the newspaper had submitted a number of questions on Monday, the answers to which were referenced in the article.
Previously, Monroe Ellis had told the PAC that she was absent from the entrance interview because she was overseas on government business pertaining to the farm work programme.
Yesterday she corrected that statement, pointing out that her office was now trying to recover her e-mail from 2019 to determine exactly where she was at the time of that meeting.
"In fact, what I have been able to glean is that a letter was received from the internal auditor, dated July 2, advising of an entrance meeting on July 4 for the audit to commence July 8... the letter didn't come to me, though it was addressed to me, it did not pass my desk," she outlined.
The auditor general told the committee that she had not received an engagement letter for the audit from the finance ministry's Chief Internal Auditor Richard Dillon, but that on January 15, 2020, whilst she was on leave, there was a request for an exit meeting set for January 27, along with the draft audit report. Monroe Ellis explained that she had asked for the exit meeting to be postponed until January 29 to allow her a day to prepare for a PAC meeting which was scheduled for the 28th.
"I was scheduled to resume duties on the 27th [and] I wanted that day to be clear, because [a] meeting of the PAC was scheduled for the 28th. I wanted to utilise that day to prepare," she said.
However, Monroe Ellis said, she received an e-mail from the committee clerk on the 28th advising that the meeting had been postponed to January 29 - the same day as the Ministry of Finance exit meeting.
"Because of that, I told my deputy AG of the circumstances, and rather than asking the internal auditor to shift the date again, which I had asked him before, I asked him to go ahead and conduct the exit interview, because I looked at the matter at hand and I figured these were matters that could be addressed by the deputy auditor general and hence why I was not at the meeting," Monroe Ellis said.
She stressed that, although she was not present, she had reviewed the report and had made clear in her submission to the committee that a meeting was held the week following the exit interview with her executive management committee to discuss steps that would be taken to address the issues in the report.
"So, I don't want the impression to be given that I did not take this matter seriously," the auditor general said.