Alvick Maharaj: ‘Premature audit’
“The Ministry of Economy received more than $400 million in aid during the pandemic and the auditor general’s office only conducted the audit on $23 million.”
Thursday 01 September 2022 | 14:00
Chairperson of the standing Committee on Justice, Law and human rights and public accounts committee chairperson, Alvick Maharaj.
Chairperson of the standing Committee on Justice, Law and human rights, Alvick Maharaj, has labelled the audited report for his committee as a premature audit.
While tabling reports on compliance audits relating to the COVID-19 response in Fiji, Mr Maharaj said the committee failed to understand that at the height of COVID-19, when agencies were trying to control a pandemic, the office of the auditor general was keeping ministries engaged in audit process.
“The Prime Minister used to be at the ministry of health on a daily basis with his cabinet making decisions them and there to assist people,” he said.
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“The Ministry of Economy received more than $400 million in aid during the pandemic and the auditor general’s office only conducted the audit on $23 million.”
The report summarised the audit issues raised by the Office of the Auditor General.
Within the scope of audit issues highlighted in parliament, these included the implementation of COVID-19 preparedness and its response plan, Procurement of Bio-medical equipment, quarantine accomodation and stock management.
Audit issues also included, management of COVID-19 aid, micro, small and medium enterprise credit gurantee schemes and the management of an agricultural assistance farm response package.
“The compliance audit relating to our Covid-19 response focuses on specific control procedures,” Mr Maharaj said.
“Audit report were thoroughly scrutinised by the committee in consultations with the relevant ministries and departments.”
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