He also signed a separate technical assistance grant in the amount of $13,000 to promote the island nation’s fraud awareness and prevention outreach program.
The grant for Palau’s OPA will be used to secure needed technology equipment, services and softwares for investigator and auditor staff to enable the continuation of quality and timely investigative and audit activities for both local and federal funding.
The purchasing of this equipment is expected to improve Palau OPA’s capacity to ensure that the government assets are safeguarded, records are reliable, reports on operations are sufficient and fairly presented, fraud, w aste and abuse are deterred, and activities are conducted efficiently and effectively.
“The people of Palau rely on OPA to serve as their guardian to ensure the effective and efficient administration and management of public funds and programs. Our objective is to promote improvement, so that the people of Palau benefit from accountable, well-managed public services that offer the best possible value for money,” said Babauta.
“Improving and strengthening the OPAs ability to carry out its mission is essential to providing reasonable assurance that the government remains accountable to its citizens,” added Babauta.
The fraud awareness and prevention outreach program, for its part, is being developed by Palau’s OPA in conjunction with the Palau special prosecutor’s office to improve on OPA’s ability to timely identify, investigate, and report on incidents of fraud, waste, and mismanagement of Compact, Recovery Act, and local monies at both the national and state government levels.
The funds will be used by Palau OPA to generate a public awareness campaign that will inform residents on the importance of strong government oversight and the actions that can be taken by citizens to report any suspicious activities.
The fraud awareness and prevention outreach program managers will hold a series of townhall meetings, radio discussions and distribute pamphlets and banners informing the community of government actions, as citizens learn more about the investigative process and how the investigators handle fraud tips and complaints it receives from the public.
“This initiative is part of a comprehensive solution in making the government of Palau more transparent and responsive to its citizens. It demonstrates the government of Palau’s commitment to ensuring the proper stewardship of and accounting for the publics’ money, while also contributing to the improved delivery of public services,” said Babauta. “Funding for the program puts the Republic of Palau on a path toward a better and more effective public administration.”
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