The Methodist Church in Fiji and Rotuma executives apol­ogised on Friday apologised to members after failing to audit the 2021-2022 financial accounts.

This is after the members and ex­ecutives of the church had intense discussion regarding the church’s financial account.

Methodist Church in Fiji and Ro­tuma general secretary Reverend Semisi Turagavou said the ac­counts team had been referred to the church’s standing committee.

There, they were expected to pre­sent the financial accounts of the church.

Reverend Turagavou said the church gave the account team two months to put together a report.

“There were concerns raised by members of the church regarding the audit of the church financial accounts,” he said.

“We apologised to the members es­pecially to its delegates, divisional superintendent and chief stewards of the Methodist Church.

“We have sought forgiveness from the members as we were unable to audit the financial reports for the year 2021 to 2022.

“The accountant team is expected to present the financial accounts to the standing committee in Decem­ber.

“Hopefully by this time, our finan­cial reports and statements for the Methodist Church will be account­ed for,” he said.

When questioned as to why the ac­counts team could not audit the fi­nancial accounts of the church for that year, he said it was due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“In the last two years, we were not able to meet due to the restrictions that were in place due to the corona­virus pandemic,” he said.

“This was a struggle for our churches in the last two years espe­cially for the finance section of the church and the Lako Yani Manage­ment.

“This challenge was not only faced by members of the church in Suva but around the country especially in the west.”

He said auditing the financial report for the church from 2021 to 2022 has been a struggle.

Story By: nacanieli@fijisun.com.fj