AG finds excessive spending in ORD

 THE Office of Rural Development (ORD) in 2010 overspent in five vote items totaling K160,582.

The most money paid in excess of warrant authorities was a sum of K152,029 under the vote for retirement benefits, pension and gratuity payments. Actual expenditure was K330,029 for the vote when warrant authority for the vote came in at only K178,000.

ORD also spent K18,893 more than it was authorised to for salaries when it paid out K233,493 for the year instead of K214,600.

Others were over-time which was overspent by K4,333, travel and subsistence expenses overspent by a sum of K875 and office materials and supplies overspent by K10,000. These were reported by the Auditor-General which 2010 reported was tabled by the Public Accounts Committee in February.

ORD confirmed the over-expenditure and said in its letter to the AG that it was an outstanding matter still with the Finance Department and that the new Department of Rural Development would attend to it.

There were also various discrepancies with ORD bank reconciliation statements including significant accumulated unpresented cheques amounting to K14,103,300. Some K5.683 million of them were stale cheques dating back to 2009.

The drawing bank account held with the Bank of PNG revealed a nil bank balance while the cash book balance reported an overdrawn balance of K16,788,118 as at Dec 13, 2010.