Ministry of Economy’s Internal Audit Representative Dominiko Tabuaura says the write off by the Ministry of Economy of the Chinese and Taiwanese grants in 2014 should not be seen as a write off but as an adjustment of correcting the General Ledger for government.
Public Accounts Committee Member Aseri Radrodro raised the issue in the committee meeting that the write off by the Ministry of Economy of the Chinese and Taiwanese grants in 2014 was an unacceptable process.
Radrodro said this while the Office of the Prime Minister was making it’s submission on the 2014 Auditor General’s Report.
The Director Corporate of the Office of the Prime Minister Moape Rokosuka says in 2014 they operated two trust accounts which is the Chinese grant and the Taiwanese grant.
Rokosuka says the Chinese grant had 1.9 million dollars and the Taiwanese grant had a closing balance of $85,000 at the end of 2014.
He says the write off in 2014 was a whole exercise for government that was done by the Ministry of Economy writing off some unverified balances sitting in the accounts of the Ministries.
Rokosuka says it was an exercise for the whole of government, not only for the Office of the Prime Minister.
He says they had to clear off these unverified balances so that their reconciliation can be updated and corrected and that is why the write off was done at that time.
Ministry of Economy’s Dominiko Tabuaura says there was an exercise conducted from 2013 to 2015 to adjust and update the general ledger and there was a resolution to have a task force headed by the General Secretary for Finance in divisions to correct and update the whole of government accounts.
He says the complications of amendments of the Auditor General securing a write off to the general ledger are that it appears in a few years as dormant figures.
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