Government accounts open today, department rep says

GOVERNMENT accounts for the 2019 fiscal year will be opened today, after it was closed on Dec 14, a Finance Department spokesperson says.
Finance Minister James Marape also confirmed earlier that the accounts would be opened today.
Finance Secretary Dr Ken Ngangan could not be reached for comment yesterday but he had said earlier no 2018 cheques issued after the closure date would be accepted by the banks.
“All will be referred back to the issuing public or statutory body,” he said.
Marape also said the department was no longer a paying office for every little claim against the Government, saying “claims are paid by agencies of the State”.
Marape cautioned all departments and agencies to spend wisely whatever little money was left, applying the Public Finance Management Act.
“Do not make commitments beyond,” he said.
“There is no more commitment on your government programmes.
“For the first time in the last two or three years, we have tried to reopen accounts very early and for next year on January 7.
“We have assembled our team to manage the processing of all the close of a accounts payments and we have a separate team to do the bank clearance.
“Whatever that has not settled and are continuing, we will do an early opening on January 7.
“Whatever we cannot do in 2018, we will move them over to 2019.”
Marape said all key government priorities such as the District Services Improvement Programme, Provincial Services Improvement Programme, tuition free-fee subsidies and health had been fully discharged last year.