Committee finds irregularities in acquittals of funds

 THE Public Accounts Committee has found irregularities in the acquittal of funds amounting to K805,000 by the Madang provincial government.

Chairman John Hickey (pictured) has directed the Auditor-General to come up with solutions to the mismanagement of funds in the next 40 days following the withdrawal of certain powers from the administration.

“I am heartbroken with this decision but it is necessary,” Hickey said.

He said the province had breached the Public Finances (Management) Act, Appropriation Act and the Financial Instructions.

Hickey said the committee had carefully studied the audit report for 2011-12 and found that the provincial government’s financial records were inadequate for auditing, raising suspicions of fraud and mismanagement.

Hickey said it was revealed that one officer in the provincial government was paid more than K388,508 as an advance but did not acquit the funds, which was illegal.

He said a laptop was hired at a rate of K200 per day and totalled hundreds of thousands of kina. 

Hickey said funds were used outside the budget while the province lacked monthly budget reviews and reporting, meaning that it failed to monitor the budget.

Hickey said the reports were not correct because the province engaged casual and retired officers to carry out these duties.