Parliament to check public accounts

The Finance Department has cleared all public accounts from 2010 to 2014 which will soon be tabled in Parliament, says secretary Dr Ken Ngangan.
Ngangan said all public accounts are supposed to be cleared by March 31 every year, according to law.
He said since 2010, the public accounts were not cleared so the department made it a priority to clear them over the last two years.
“Public accounts were cleared up to 2010 so we’ve managed to reconcile all government bank accounts from 2010 to 2014 which are ready to go to Parliament,” Ngangan said.
“Every year when the budget is handed down at the end of the 12 months, we produce a public account of how much is received and how much has been spent.
“These are all now providing credibility to public financial management.
“Those are the significant milestones that we have achieved over the last two years.
“A lot of that has been outstanding so we’ve managed to clear out all that now and the 2015 public accounts are ready to be audited by the Auditor-General.
“By law, public accounts for the previous year have to be audited by the March 31 and we are close to meeting that.
“Going forward, we should be able meet the legal requirements of the reporting system.”
He said producing public accounts was essential for accountability.