The Audit Office which is headed by Deodat Sharma and tasked with the promotion of good governance, transparency and improved public accountability, has not conducted an assessment of Guyana’s disaster risk compliance with existing regulations for the last five years.
Highlighting this level of negligence in a recent report was the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). The financial institution said that no evidence was found either about verification or assessment performed by the Audit Office on information generation and its availability on disaster risks.
Additionally, in an interview with Sharma, IDB Consultants said he confirmed that no verification or assessment on the government ́s performance in relation to any disaster recovery process has been carried out in relation to the last five major disasters declared at a national level.
In light of the foregoing, several recommendations were made. IDB Consultants suggested that the Audit Office as the supreme audit institution of the State with competencies to conduct performance audits, undertakes an assessment on the existing regulations in disaster risk management.
There was also a call for Sharma to conduct at least one “after event” assessment on the government’s performance in relation to future emergency response activities.
And finally, it was recommended that the Audit Office undertakes an assessment on the implementation of existing regulations on disaster risk reduction in the country.
The report that was funded by the IDB made use of the Index of the Governance and Public Policy in Disaster Risk Management (iGOPP).
The Guyana Standard understands that the iGOPP has been designed to evaluate the formal, and therefore provable existence of a series of legal, institutional and budgetary conditions that are considered fundamental in order for the processes of Disaster Risk Management to be implemented in a particular country.
The practical use of the iGOPP lies in the identification of the gaps in the legal, institutional and budgetary framework that may exist in a particular country. It helps to focus a country’s efforts and the IDB’s support when applicable, on relevant aspects of governance aimed at strengthening the Disaster Risk Management public policy options in the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean.
