Zurenuoc: Heads of departments must be held accountable

 By ELIZABETH MIAE

DEPARTMENT secretaries must be held accountable for misappropriation and mismanagement of funds, chief secretary to government Manasupe Zurenuoc says.

He said this after sitting through the public accounts committee (PAC) hearing into the auditor-general’s report for the financial year of 2008.

“We have people who are incompetent and who don’t have any idea of the Appropriation Act and Finance Management Act.”

He said if departmental heads did not care how they spent money then they should be held accountable for their actions. 

Planning and monitoring secretary Dr Peter Kora supported Zurenuoc and pointed out two major areas that affected the running of departments.

He said continuous turnovers of secretaries and deputy secretaries affected the operation of the departments.

Restructuring of the departments was another area Kora said had an effect on the department but added that good leadership would have an impact on the performance of the staff. 

Meanwhile, PAC chairman John Hickey directed finance secretary Stephen Gibson to give a report on how many state vehicles the department owned, how many had government number plates and their registration number, when and where they were purchased and if they were replaced vehicles, where did the other vehicle go to?

He said some of the department’s officers were using vehicles 24 hours which was unauthorised.

Hickey said the same directive would be given to provincial governments.