[Source: Parliament of the Republic of Fiji/ Facebook]

Auditor General Finau Nagera says unresolved internal control issues in various government ministries and departments pose significant risks to the financial integrity of the public sector.

She highlighted this during submissions by the Ministry of iTaukei Affairs on the review of the 2020 & 2021 & 2022 audit reports on general administration sector.

During the submission, Public Accounts Committee member Naisa Tuinaceva raised concerns of the recurrence of issues which have been flagged in number of audit reports but remain unresolved.

[Source: Parliament of the Republic of Fiji/ Facebook]

Nagera says the findings of the Auditor General’s office, especially those relating to internal controls need to be taken seriously.

“This is the advice that we normally give to public entities. If the issues have been raised by the Auditor General in the management letter, then they are not trivial issues. They should… because they are part of issues that we’ve detected from internal control.”

The Auditor General warns that the failure to address these issues could have far-reaching consequences.

“The impact of that, if they’re left unresolved for a number of years, could be mismanagement of funds, could be fraud. So it’s important that issues that relate to internal control that are raised by the Auditor General are taken into account and resolved by the Ministries and Departments.”

Nagera says it is crucial that government agencies take these matters seriously and implement robust measures to strengthen their internal controls.