Nauga leaves AG’s office

By PETER ESILA
OUTGOING Auditor-General Philip Nauga says a commitment to strong financial management and accountability is challenging Papua New Guinea.
He was speaking during a ceremony in Port Moresby on Wednesday where he handed over the office |acting Auditor-General Gordon Kega.
Nauga said having sound financial management and performance reporting in the public sector was an important contributor to achieving greater transparency, accountability and fiscal responsibility and improved governance.
“Our effective participation in the activities of the Pacific Association of Supreme Audit Institutions and the International Organistaion of Supreme Audit Institutions provided us immense opportunities to learn from the many examples of good practices of our peers on the international front,” he said.
“Through these international linkages, we also played a significant role in sharing a number of our own best practices with our peers in the Pacific region and the world.”
Nauga worked in the office for 38 years and was auditor-general for six.
He and two others are facing misappropriation charges.
Meanwhile, Kega says the department was “now working on the current audits of 2016, 2017.”
“There are number of things, one is the review of the Audit Act, making it into an organic law which I think is 80 to 90 per cent complete,” he said.
Kega said he would like to fast-track audit reports.
“This is something that we need to progress, each and every individual who comes first, deserves it first. We produce their report and let it go. Why do we need to hold them until the end of the year? I see that is very important.
“I feel that this is a way forward and that is what other countries in the SAI (Supreme Audit Institutions) in the Pacific and Asia and all over the world are doing and we should catch up with them.”
Kega said there were many challenges and the office would have to cut some resources and focus on the core business if need be.
“We are going through a recession, budget cuts, like I know provincial and local-level governments for the last two years, there is no money, so I have taken over at a very bad time.”