Leader of the Opposition, Joseph Lelang, has highlighted that certain financial management, accounting and reporting issues must be addressed for proper accountability and governance.
Mr Lelang said this during the presentation of his Kandrian Gloucester District’s outstanding District Services Improvement Program (DSIP) fund and District Support Grant (DSG), acquittals to the Department of Rural Development and Planning;
The presentation was for the outstanding DSIP and DSG for years 2020 and 2021.
He said the Integrated Finance Management System (IFMS) installed by Government to be used is not serving its purpose attributed to following challenges, and they are;
- Finance officers in the districts are not properly trained to administer and maintain the IFMS System.
- There is no proper chart of accounts in the IFMS for Planning and allocation of DSIP, DSG fund in the budget according to priority Sectors.
- Extraction of financial reports for acquittals and internal management reports are difficult as all IFMS reports for the districts are centralized at the Department of Finance in Waigani, and,
- IFMS can only be utilized where supporting services like adequate proper supply, proper communication systems, and other infrastructure are established in the districts.
Mr Lelang said the lack of supervision and audit by the departments responsible for Public Finance Management has resulted in the districts operating like an island, where there is no proper supervision by the Finance Department.
He said what this means, is that the district finance with district administration could be mismanaging public funds which the Members of Parliament and District Development Authority Board (DDA) may not be aware.
Mr Lelang highlighted that, as a result, there is no Quarterly District Management Reports on the Budget Performances and the cash position keeping the chairman of DDAs are in the dark.
“The acquittal of DSIP and DSG funding allocated into the district’s total of more than K1.2 billion annually. As such, the accountability and reporting of these funds expected are important,” he said.
Mr Lelang has urged all MPs to be responsible in acquitting these funds.
He also called for re-introduction of PGAS back to DDAs to avoid all the difficulties DDAs are facing nationwide when it comes to Budget and acquittals.