Report: Poor use of money

 THE Public Accounts Committee in Madang has found discrepancies, lack of guidelines and proper accounts in the provincial administration.

It concluded that the province lacked qualified or competent people in the administration after grilling public servants for two days.

Chairman of the committee, John Hickey said that his findings based on the audit reports of 2011 and 2012 showed a lot of discrepancies and that there were no proper guidelines or financial management practice within all sections of the administration.

The committee found that the administration was paying huge sums of money without verifying claims.

It found that K394,534 was spent on travel advances, with cash advances totalling K808,168.

The total unaquitted advances of K1.2 million could not be explained in detail by the provincial administrator, Ben Lange.

It was found that almost half of the cost was incurred by the provincial mines office.

Provincial mines director, John Bivi said the costs were a result of two urgent projects undertaken by his section, the Kurumbukari agreement review and the Lands Titles Commission inquiry for the Ramu NiCo project. Bivi was asked why K418,000 for accommodation was paid by the province to the Smugglers Inn Hotel.