The Members of the National Assembly attended a presentation on the Annual Audit Report (AAR) 2021-22 by the Royal Audit Authority. The presentation was chaired by the Deputy Chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee. The Hon Speaker and Leader of the Opposition attended the presentation. The Royal Audit Authority (RAA) was led by the Auditor General. The  presentation covered the following;

i.         Annual Financial Statement (AFS) of RGoB;

ii.       Summary of Audit Findings for the financial year 2021 02022; and

iii.      Recommendations for parliament to consider.

The presentation highlighted the summary of audit findings on recoveries, fraud and corruption, non-compliance, shortfall, lapses and deficiencies. The presentation also mentioned some common cause of irregularities like inadequate system of responsibility, accountability and sanctions within public sectors, lack of performance and ethical culture fuelled by lack of effective leadership, lack of monitoring and supervision leading to time and cost overruns, non-compliance to laws, rules and regulations, lack of coordination among public agencies and within the department and divisions of same agency and inadequate documentation.

The Report recommends effective internal control system to be enforced and implemented throughout the agencies; Ministry of Finance to address the risk of assigning access rights to a single user in implementing e-PEM; for greater integration of sectoral master plans with National Five-Year Plan through robust coordination; and a need to have consistent rules & regulations to regulate entitlements besides enforcing strict Implementation. Further, the Report also recommends the Government to institute a robust credit appraisal system for Financial Service Providers and for the Government to review the relevance of CSI Bank

The presentation was followed by a question and answer session.

The AAR 2021-22 was tabled during the Joint Sitting of the Eighth Session of the Third Parliament and was referred to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) for review. The PAC will report to the Parliament in the upcoming Session with its findings and recommendations.