Caricom inaugurates Audit Committee

CARICOM Secretary-General Ambassador Irwin LaRocque has assured the committee of his total unconditional support and co-operation.

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, Wednesday January 18, 2012 - Terrence Bastian, Auditor General of The Bahamas has been elected as the first Chairman of the Audit Committee of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat.

The committee was the latest step by the Secretariat to strengthen its governance framework, CARICOM Secretary-General Ambassador Irwin LaRocque said.

The election took place Tuesday at the Committee’s inaugural meeting held via video conference among its five members, the others being from Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, and Guyana.

The CARICOM Secretary-General assured the committee of his “total and unconditional support…and co-operation.”

He said its work would give him confidence that the governance systems of the Secretariat were operating properly.

“I believe the output from your interaction with the Secretariat would serve as a useful barometer of the organisation’s health,” Ambassador LaRocque stressed.

Over the past ten years, he noted, the Secretariat had received generally favourable institutional assessments from the World Bank, the European Union and the Global Fund.

“The Secretariat remains ever vigilant in order to ensure that this robust internal control framework is maintained, enhanced and adhered to faithfully,” the Secretary-General said further.

The Committee was established by the Secretariat with the approval of the Community Council of Ministers.

The Secretariat has already established Internal Audit and Strategic Planning and Monitoring and Evaluation Units, and Guideline and Procedures Manual relating to Procurement and Fraud and Conflict of Interest Policies. Click here to receive free news bulletins via email from Caribbean360. (View sample)