AG report finds depts not implementing plans

 CORPORATE and annual plans are drawn up by just about every department and agency of government, dressed in colourful language and announced with much fanfare, according to the Auditor-General’s 2010 report.

But implementing them has become the bane of good governance in Papua New Guinea. So much so that measuring performances have been difficult, leading to ineffective and inefficient service delivery, according to the report into national government departments and agencies.

Eleven out of 18 departments had corporate plans and only six had annual plans despite the requirement for all departments to have both.

Even for departments that had corporate plans, performance indicators “were not precise enough and therefore did not provide an effective basis for proper assessment of achievements”.

Internal audit systems, another key component of corporate good governance that ensures adequacy of systems and process that underpin an agency’s financial statements have also been found wanting in many departments surveyed.

Two departments did not have internal audit functions and for the majority of those that did, there was no trained staff and funding to carry out the functions effectively.

Quarterly and annual financial reports and annual management reports were not attended to by many departments examined.

Six out of 18 departments examined by the auditor-general did not even bother with the reports, another failure to comply with essential functions that contribute to transparency, accountability and good government.