Acquittals are unaudited: Basil

Acquittals are not an endorsed document on how Provincial, District and Local Level Government Services Improvement Program (SIP) funds are used.

Basil said this in response to ORD Secretary, Paul Sai, calling on MPs to submit acquittals so that the reports can be verified and sent to Government. This is so they can keep track of the performance of programs.

Sai made the statement during the handing over of 2014 District Report acquittals to ORD by the Member for Kairuku-Hiri, Peter Isoaimo.

“The big problem is when someone push it (acquittal report) through the door of rural development, we make a big fanfare and big announcement that hooray we acquitted but let us bring our minds back to auditing those accounts.

“All those accounts that we put back into the Office of Rural Development, number one it is not our duty as members of parliament, it is a duty of the provincial and district treasurers and administrators.

“Number two, they are unaudited accounts. Unaudited meaning, anyone can push a wheelbarrow of paper and say we’ve acquitted. But it is unaudited,” Basil said.

He said he has raised the issue numerous times with Finance Minister James Marape on the floor of Parliament, that in order to see true representation of government expenditure and its performance, all provinces, districts, and LLGs must have their SIPs audited.

Basil added the Attorney-General just needs K5 million to carry out an audit of all Government books.

“We have to audit. This country needs those things to be audited because when you look at 111 members of parliament, we’re running into a billion (kina) already.

“One year we are spending more than a billion, giving those money to the hands of the provincial governors and the district members and also the LLG president.

He further says: “We are not having a true government representation because number one, our books are unaudited because we want a rogue Prime Minister who can do whatever he wants."