MANY State agencies have failed miserably to account for public funds and blatantly violated the reporting requirements under the Public Finance Management Act 2016 without any apparent consequences.
Transparency International PNG’s (TIPNG) recent publication of the ‘Accountability Scorecard’ reveals a number of government departments, state-owned companies and public bodies lacked accountability of how public monies were being used.
TIPNG revealed that since 2016, only seven State agencies out of 72 have submitted annual reports and financial statements to the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) for auditing.
“It is common knowledge that the taxes paid by Papua New Guineans amount to the public funding that source all public and state-owned entities. The laws that govern the accountability of how these funds are spent is set out in the Public Finance (Management) (Amendment) Act 2016 (PF (M)(A) Act 2016).
“There are explicit reporting requirements in Part VIII of the PF (M)(A) Act 2016 that require all statutory bodies, government-owned companies and/or public bodies to submit annual reports and annual financial statements.
“All government bodies listed on the TIPNG Accountability Scorecard are those that the AGO records made available on their website.
“With the seven entities that were audited by the Auditor General’s Report & had their documents available online from 2016-2020, the PNG Correctional Services was the only government department to adhere to the requirements.
“The National Statistics Office, the Office of Tourism, Arts & Culture and PNG Immigration & Citizenship Services were the only three departments that completely failed to submit both their annual reports and annual financial statements to the Auditor General’s Office (AGO) from 2013-2020.
“TIPNG has released this publication to shame and pressure these departments and public organizations into addressing their failure to produce reports required of them by law.
“Tax-paying Papua New Guineans deserve the right to know where their hard-earned money is going to, and TIPNG have done their part to highlight the blatant violation of the listed state institutions.
“TIPNG has requested the following to ensure financial accountability and transparency in the future:
1. Members of Parliament must ensure Accountability in the management of public finances through debate and committees.
2. Parliament must keep a regular meeting calendar for Parliament sessions, to ensure all public finances are tabled in a timely manner.
3. The Auditor General’s office must be provided adequate budgetary support to ensure greater accountability.
4. All Public Bodies should be more responsible to avail reports tabled in Parliament to be accessible to the people of PNG.
“These recommendations are a starting point for long overdue courses of actions, and have become public information to hold these government entities accountable for not complying with the laws put in place to govern the spending of public funds.”
