In the wake of multiple theft and fraud charges against Ministry of Finance and Health workers for the theft of more than $500,000 the hearings will send an important accountability message to government departments, committee chairman Senator Frederick Muller said Tuesday.
Next month’s oversight hearings mark only the second year that the Public Accounts Committee is calling in every government department and agency for a review of performance during the past year. Until Muller took over the committee in 2010, Public Accounts was largely not active for the first 30 years of constitutional government.
“We’ve asked all government departments to provide us with progress reports, strategic plans and other information for reviews,” Muller said.
The oversight hearings are expected to start the week following next week’s Association of Pacific Island Public Auditors Association annual conference so the auditor general’s office, which is hosting the APIPA meeting, can be fully involved in the hearings, Muller said.
The auditor general and officials from the Ministry of Finance are expected to attend all the hearings into the work of individual departments so the right people are in the room to answer questions as they come up in the hearings, Muller said.
Muller said the role of Public Accounts is to focus on how government money is spent, whether it is being used efficiently and effectively, and if proper controls are being enforced to ensure accountability of public money.
“It is not enough to say that we have a financial management act and internal controls,” he said. “What are they? Our question is, can we see them to let the public know.”
“The role of this Nitijela (parliament) committee is to help in fraud prevention, he said. “By law, we examine public spending and audits,” Muller said. “Public Accounts plays an oversight role of accountability and transparency for the Nitijela.”
But Muller said the committee’s role is not to pinpoint or investigate people on fraud. “It’s the auditor general’s job to find fraud,” he said. “Our job is to see if publicly funded departments and agencies are doing their work effectively, efficiently and economically.”
While this includes looking at how money is spent, it also means reviewing performance of different government offices, Muller said.
