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FPAC gives updates on auditor general’s 2013 report |27 May 2015

‘More needs to be done to instil order in public accounts’


Although there have been some major improvements on the part of organisations in managing public funds, there is still work to be done by many entities to instill order in public accounts.

This was said by the chairperson of the National Assembly’s Finance and Public Account Committee (FPAC), David Pierre, while giving an update on the auditor general’s report for the year 2013.
Mr Pierre, who is also the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, made the remark after holding a hearing on the matter with officials of the department of finance.

The FPAC is one of the most important committees of the National Assembly which has the mandate of reporting on the effectiveness and efficiency of the management of public funds by ensuring transparency and accountability.

“Once the report is out, we at the FPAC go through it and identify areas where we feel we have to question and find out what has gone wrong. After analysing the report, we prepare a series of questions we need to ask on different ministries, departments, agencies (MDAs) and other entities that are allocated funds from the national budget. After sending the questions we set an answer date for them,” said Mr Pierre. This, he said, is what we call the series of hearings that the committee holds like this one.

Already 12 departments have been called and over 90 questions have been asked on their financial transactions. They are namely the National Human Resource Development Council (NHRDC) now called the Agency for Human Resource Development Council (ANHRC); ministries of health and finance and public health agency; Seychelles Revenue Commission especially on more efficient collection of government taxes through better softwares and technologies; and also some statutory bodies like the Seychelles National Parks Authority (SNPA), Seychelles Heritage Foundation, National Council for the Disabled, Seychelles Agricultural Agency (SAA) , to name some.

“We have asked questions, we have looked for evidence and there have been instances where we have not received any related documents needed so we have lodged a request for them,” he added.

Mr Pierre said it is after receiving these documents that they can really analyse the answers to the questions asked. This will lead to a report that will be presented to the National Assembly.
“Once the report is approved by the National Assembly it becomes public document,” said Mr Pierre, adding that it will also be available on its website.

Elaborating on recurrent instances of mismanagement of public funds by certain ministries, departments and agencies, Mr Pierre said there are some that have been really making a great effort and have really improved their accounting and funds management procedures.

But there are also repeated offenders whom he said he has brought to the attention of the department of finance for necessary action.
Referring to that, Mr Pierre named some glaring cases like where the department of police has seen an increase in its outstanding debts to almost R2 million which is related to services rendered by the police but have not been paid for.

Other such cases refer to the NHRDC where R4.89 million is still to be collected, the Seychelles Heritage Foundation that has not submitted its statement of account since 2007, and the department of finance which has made advances of R176.3 million to parastatals and R45 million to the Seychelles Trading Company (STC) that have not been recovered yet.

He also mentioned the dragging issue of the liquidation of the former Seychelles Marketing Board (SMB) which is still ongoing and which he would like to see an end to it.

 

 

 

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