According to the Auditor General’s report for the year ended March 31, 2022, the BTO has not submitted its annual financial statements and management letters for the financial years 2018/2019, 2019/2020, 2020/2021, and 2021/2022. This long-standing non-compliance has raised serious concerns about the organisation’s adherence to financial accountability and transparency standards, particularly its repeated breach of Section 22 of the Act. The Act requires BTO’s accounts to be audited within three months after the end of each financial year.
“I have commented in my previous reports that the BTO was in breach of Section 22, which required the accounts of the organisation to be audited within three months after the end of the financial year,” stated the Auditor General’s report. The BTO attributed the delays in completing the 2018/2019 audit to the findings of a forensic report. Despite the explanation, the situation is still worrisome, especially considering the continued absence of financial reports for subsequent years. In 2021, the BTO appeared before the parliamentary oversight body, Public Accounts Committee and submitted unaudited financial statements for the year ending March 31, 2020, contrary to Parliament's request for audited reports. At the time, the BTO attributed the delay to the auditors' need to review the organisation's forensic audit report and assess its impact on the previous audit cycle. The forensic audit conducted a few years ago took a significant amount of time to complete. According to audit findings, the auditors were unable to obtain appropriate and sufficient evidence to verify the accuracy and completeness of revenue from the sale of goods and services disclosed in the accounts. As a consequence, the auditors could not determine whether adjustments were needed to the consolidated financial statements concerning this revenue.
