I apologise to the people of Fiji for mistakes in the 2016 Auditor General’s reports - Nand

The Auditor General has apologized to the people of Fiji for mistakes in the 2016 Auditor General’s reports tabled in parliament in July this year.

Ajay Nand has also assured people that this will not happen again under his watch and explained that the errors occurred because of the archaic audit practices within the Office of the Auditor General.

Nand confirmed in a press conference that he intends to review the capability of the staff at the Auditor General’s Office after a number of glaring errors that need to be corrected.

He says one of the key errors in the 2016 Auditor General’s reports were the statement in the report that the purchases worth $2.59 million of family packs for Cyclone Winston victims were not properly procured although it was done under the Procurement Regulations which allows the Ministry to make such purchases during times of emergencies.

Nand also highlighted that the reports also said that there was non-submission of audited accounts for some entities which amounted to a total value of $245.07 million.

However he clarified that a number of draft accounts were already submitted to the Auditor General’s Office and a number of reports have already been audited.

Nand says he will provide a list of these reports to the media.

There was also misleading information about the Ministry of Women not getting proper approvals from the Ministry of Economy in relation to budgeted purposes however Nand has clarified that the approval is not needed from the Ministry of Economy as these approvals come from the Permanent Secretaries of the ministries.

Nand confirms that he will submit a supplementary report with the corrected information regarding the 2016 reports.