Auditing adds value, says dept official

 THE main task of auditing is to add value to work and not to find faults in systems and processes, according to a senior Finance Department officer. 

Deputy Secretary for Strategic Division Samuel Penias said this last Thursday during the launching of the East New Britain provincial audit committee in Kokopo.

“The role of the audit committee is to provide an independent assurance to add value and support to the agency and ensure compliance is done and support corporate governance process, therefore it needs the support from the provincial administration,” he said.

Penias said audits were focused on areas such as procurement, payroll, trust accounts, bank reconciliation, review of IT system, assets, projects, advance management, revenue collection and investments of the provincial government.

He added that there were agencies that had seen benefits to their organisations when they embraced the internal audit committee programme.

“The provincial administrator is responsible for giving out and receiving the internal audit reports, will sanction audits and review the auditor’s findings. The audit committee is tasked to review financial statements from the provincial treasurer on a quarterly basis, and look at internal and external audit reports,” he said.

Penias said the committee would also look at internal control and compliance issues, business ethics and conduct requirements, adding that anything that the committee could not handle, will be referred to appropriate agencies like the fraud squad and ombudsman commission.