Minister Colm Imbert Denies “Missing Money” Claims

March 10, 2025 – Finance Minister Colm Imbert insists that $2.6 billion is not missing from the financial accounts for fiscal 2023, calling the accusations “fabricated.” He is responding to Opposition MP Davendranath Tancoo, who argues that the Minister has yet to prove where the money went and calls his explanation “unsatisfactory.”

The controversy stems from an Auditor General’s report in 2024, which initially stated that $2.6 billion was unaccounted for. Imbert has since responded, explaining that the discrepancy was an accounting error made by public servants within the Finance Ministry. He has provided a detailed explanation, stating that a software failure at the Central Bank on February 8, 2023, caused an error where $26 million in tax refunds was incorrectly posted as $2.6 billion. The error was not discovered by the Auditor General’s office but by personnel in the Budget Division during a year-end review.