Auditor-General seeking direct funding from govt

THE office of the Auditor-General (AG) is seeking direct funding from the Government to improve its work nationwide, an official says.
Auditor-General Gordon Kega said the office was unable to audit more than 1,500 State agencies under its constitutional responsibility annually due to insufficient funding allocation.
“Through the Organic Law of the Auditor-General Office, we get our appropriation (budget) straight from the Parliament but instead our budget goes to Treasury Department,” he said.
Kega said this during the launching of the AG’s five year-strategic plan for 2022-2027 in Port Moresby yesterday. He said the office had not done a proper audit on the services improvement programme (SIP) for the provincial, district and local level governments since 2013 due to lack of financial and human resources.
“We are supposed to do these audits every year, but it was sometimes done at an ad-hoc basis because of the resource issues and less funding,” he said.
“Our human resource needed up-skilling, given the improvement in technology around the world.” Kega said audit was not a one-way thing where they just go out and provide service but needed collaboration.