BY BARNABAS MANEBONA
PEOPLE of Central Islands have acknowledged the recent positive news about their province receiving the ‘clean audit report’ for its 2020/21 final audit carried out by the Office of the Auditor-General.
This is the third clean audit report in a row (unqualified audit opinion) for Central Islands Province (CIP) as citizens through Ngella’s social media platform, the Ngella Forum (NgF), congratulate the provincial government, Administration, and everyone contributing towards the achievement.
People of CIP believe that though there is still a long way to go in terms of improved development to support their community, the province will still reach its goals by working positively together.
“Overall it is good that CIP has an ‘unqualified report’ as it is good for the province,” said CIP citizens.
“We congratulate our staff on it. It is a team effort by everyone involved.
“So we are happy and proud for our province to achieve the clean audit report being a third time in a row. Although we disagree on some things, we must also give credit where it is due.
“We however still have a long way to go, it will take time but we will get there. We must work on some of the weaknesses and issues that continue to be around, with more advocacy and discussions, we can still make improvements.
CIP people point out that their only fear is to ‘maintain’ the level of development in the long run for the province on which they wish their workforce well.
“Our leaders, workforce, and people must not rest and get slack going back again to the bad days. We must maintain. That is the only fear, otherwise, all is good, we will be okay, we must be proud of our province as it is good for improvements in developments,” said CIP citizens.
Being the third clean audit report in a row, CIP is commended in a Press Release by the Minister and Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Provincial Government and Institutional Strengthening (MPGIS) for setting the pace for the public sector accountability in the country.
In a letter addressed to the Speaker and the Provincial Secretary of CIP, the Auditor General (AG) stated that he has audited the Financial Statements of CIP and has expressed an unqualified opinion on them in accordance with the International Public Sector Accounting Standard (IPSAS) cash basis, and International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institution (INTOSAI).
In the report on the matters arising from the FS audit of CIP for the period 1st April 2020 to 31st March 2021, the Office of the Auditor-General OAG found out that CIP has adequate control over its resources even though there are areas that need to be strengthened to improve internal control systems within the Province.
An unqualified audit report for CIP means that the financial statement produced and audited by the AG represents a true and fair view of the state of the financial affairs of CIP.
Some of the areas identified for improvement did not impact drastically on the opinion.
CIP was once disqualified from accessing PCDF in 2015/16 but bounced back from the bottom to top in all the subsequent PCDF Assessments conducted in 2016/17, 2017/18 2018/19, and 2019/20 retaining the first position in four years in a row which is indeed manifested in the audit performance.
The audit outcome for CIP is a clear demonstration of the commitment of CIP to good governance as far as compliance with acts, legislations, relevant regulations, financial instructions, and other developmental policies are concerned.
Compliance through consistent application of policies, fiscal discipline, and proper accounting on the use of public resources will help the Province to move forward.
In congratulating the Premier and his hardworking officers in Central Province, the Minister, and the Permanent Secretary urged all provinces to emulate the examples being set by Central and Isabel Provinces.
Despite the size of the two Provinces and sometimes lack of adequate manpower, the Executive Government decisions in the two Provinces have helped the officers to attain a higher level of audit performance.
The Permanent Secretary indicated that the MPGIS and its PGSP program will continue to provide the best technical advice to all provinces to come up to speed in Central and Isabel.
Whilst bigger Provinces have the manpower and revenue sources, the officers in bigger provinces need more support from the Executives to ensure proper internal control processes and procedures are in place to turn around their audit performances.
The Minister and the Permanent Secretary for MPGIS expressed sincere appreciation to the SIG for the continued support being provided to the PGSP recurrent budget, from where the continuous capacity building of the Nine Provinces is being funded.
Without such recurrent budget support, the Ministry could not have been able to sustain the capacity building of the Nine Provinces in Public Finance, Public Expenditure Management Systems, Good Governance, and the success stories of PCDF.
Provincial Secretary (PS) for CIP Mr. Allan Siale stated being very honored indeed for his province to clinch such an opinion from OAG which does not come by easily unless they are convinced to make a confident independent opinion.
“I am grateful to CIP Heads of Divisions, especially Finance and Treasury, Planning, Executive Government, the Assembly, and every other individual who in many ways contributed to elevating the position of CIP in terms of the audit opinion,” said Siale.
Mr. Siale calls on CIP Government Officials, especially all HODs, CIP public entities, and citizens who do business with CIP to make every day an audit day.
The PS appeals to each official in CIP to continue to shine and transform their daily work and outputs into desirable outcomes to grow CIP.
The CIP Provincial Secretary expressed his sincere gratitude to the National Government and MPGIS for continued support to CIP through the PCDF and capacity building.
Mr. Siale said without SIG support, CIP would not be where it is at today.
