Firm to audit salaries

By MIRIAM ZARRIGA
AN audit into the K6 billion in salaries and emoluments paid to the country’s 130,000 public servants will be conducted by a private firm, it has been revealed.
Northern Governor Gary Juffa, the chairman of the special parliamentary committee on public sector reform and service delivery, said the international firm Deloitte would find out why “for the last 10 years we have hundreds of millions of Kina in overruns in public service salaries and emolument”.
“It is believed that the recommendations of this review will be a basis to modernise the public service payroll system and save substantial amounts of money,” Juffa said.
The recently approved 2022 National Budget has allocated more than K6 billion to the salaries and emoluments of about 130,000 public servants.
“Many have asked the question: For what?” he said.
“Why is it that every year for the last 10 years we have hundreds of millions of Kina in overruns in public service salaries and emoluments?
“Either someone cannot draft budgets or someone is just adding people onto the public payroll at will or ghosts have appeared through ghost holes. Either way, it has to stop.”
Juffa said the Department of Personnel Management would be the lead government agent to facilitate the audit by Deloitte.
“Over many years, the country, taxpayers, governments and many public servants themselves have been voicing strong opinions on the integrity of the public service payroll,” he said.
“As recent as last week during the Budget 2022 sessions, the matter was raised as a national concern.”
Juffa said his committee had been working to secure an independent update by an internationally recognised firm.
“Deloitte, through public tender, has been awarded the contract,” he said.
“It has to be independent to tell us exactly what is actually going on.”
The review will be for six months.