Is the government now making it harder for its own watchdogs to see where the money is going?
As the Mira Millions investigation continues under audit, the Public Service Union (PSU) is sounding the alarm over reports that Finance officers across the public service have had their access to SmartStream restricted to transactions only within their own ministry.
The SmartStream is the government’s financial management system used to track public spending.
According to the union, officers can now view transactions only within the ministry where they are assigned. The new restriction cuts off the officer’s ability to examine payments across government, which PSU argues is exactly what is needed to detect the kind of spread-out spending pattern at the centre of the ongoing Mira Millions controversy.
“A single payment of $9,800 looks routine,” the PSU said in its statement. “Forty-four payments in one day, or hundreds over five years, is a pattern. An officer confined to one ministry’s ledger cannot detect a pattern that has been deliberately spread across several.”
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The Mira Millions matter involves hundreds of government payments to people and businesses allegedly connected to the currently Cabinet-benched Minister of Defence Oscar Mira. Many of those payments were kept under the $10,000 threshold that triggers stricter oversight.
The PSU is demanding that the restriction be reversed. At the same time, the union says that certain information should be protected, stating, “The PSU accepts that not every field in a financial system should be visible to every user. Access controls serve legitimate purposes, including the protection of personal data such as payroll and personnel records and the preservation of segregation of duties.”
“A blanket removal of cross-ministry visibility from an entire professional cadre, introduced without notice, without consultation, and without any legal basis being disclosed, in the middle of a national procurement scandal, is not an internal control. It is a curtain,” it added.
“If the Ministry’s true concern is the leaking of SmartStream records, then the remedy is a proper examination of system audit logs and, where warranted, due process under the Public Service Regulations — not the blinding of the entire finance cadre. Disabling the oversight capacity of hundreds of officers because of the suspected conduct of a few, and describing it as information security, will convince no one.”
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The union is demanding the immediate restoration of government-wide access, public disclosure of who authorised the restriction and under what legal basis, written assurance that no officer will be disciplined for reporting irregular transactions, and confirmation that the Auditor General, Integrity Commission and Public Accounts Committee retain full, unrestricted access to the system.
The union is also renewing its call for the long-delayed Protected Disclosures Bill to be brought back to the National Assembly, saying public officers need both the ability to identify questionable transactions and protection when they report them.
The PSU says the timing of the restriction, introduced without consultation and amid ongoing scrutiny of the SmartStream leaks, sends an unmistakable message to public officers. “This measure will be read by public officers for precisely what it resembles: a warning.”
The Auditor General’s initial report on the Mira Millions investigation is expected by the end of September.
