The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is looking forward to the challenges ahead in reviewing the accounts of various government ministries and making appropriate recommendations.
The committee undertook a three-day workshop on the functions of PAC ran by United Nations Development Programme consultant Rob Oakeshott and the principal research officer of the PAC of Western Australia, Tim Hughes.
The workshop which finished on Thursday was attended by committee members Tingika Elikana (chairman), Vaitoti Tupa (deputy chair), Terepai Maoate, Tai Tura, Patrick Arioka and Te-Hani Brown.
Elikana was pleased with the workshop and the discussions that took place over the three days.
He said it was very enlightening and thanked Oakeshott and Hughes for imparting their knowledge on the subject.
“It’s been a very fruitful and important meeting for the PAC members in terms of understanding our roles, our functions and powers,” Elikana said.
“We had some exercises and I think as the result of those exercises, it clearly shows that we are on track to carry the functions that have been given to us by Parliament.”
In terms of their work programme, Elikana said it was important that they look at the machinery of government and ensure they can contribute in terms of its efficiencies.
“It’s a priority for us to focus on all the ministries and to look at their financial reporting to ensure that everybody complies with the audit requirement and with the statutory requirement.
“It is also important that we have timely information in particular financial information to make informed decisions.”
Elikana earlier stated that they would take appropriate action against agencies who were not providing timely information to the audit office for the compiling of the report for their scrutiny.
He said the committee’s focus was primarily to look into how the ministries were responding to audit requirements.
“We have passed a resolution for the secretariat of the committee who is the clerk of Parliament (Tangata Vainerere) to write to the director of audit (Allen Parker) to provide us with the list of all the non-complying agencies,” Elikana earlier said.
