The revelation by Local Government Minister Dean Peart that a team of auditors from his ministry was not aware of a critical Cabinet decision of 2001 on the award of contracts in parish councils could result in a revision of some of its findings.

The auditors' report concluded that there were serious breaches in Government's procurement procedures.

Mr. Peart made the disclosure in the House of Representatives Tuesday while responding to questions from Opposition Leader Bruce Golding.

The Cabinet decision of 2001 allowed parish councils to approve contracts falling in the category of "emergency work and drain cleaning" valued at less than $250,000 without competitive bidding.

Report accuracy

However, admission that the auditors were ignorant of this Cabinet policy decision raises question about the accuracy of aspects of the report.

"Did his (Peart's) internal auditors make the differentiation in the contracts which they examined in the parish council to determine which of those contracts fell within the ambit of the types of contracts for which Cabinet had approved this variation?" Golding queried.

In his reply, Mr. Peart said: "The audit team wasn't aware of it so the audit team could not take this into consideration."

Earlier during the dialogue, the Opposition Leader asked Mr. Peart whether he was a member of the Cabinet in 2001, a query to which Mr. Peart replied that he could not remember.

Meanwhile, in a statement to the House, the Local Government Minister said that Auditor General, Adrian Strachan, has been asked to carry out a thorough audit of parish councils following reports of irregularities.

Two weeks ago Mr. Golding took issue with a decision by Mr. Peart to use internal auditors from his ministry to conduct the audit instead of the Auditor General.