LTA systems were ineffective for several years

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) has admitted that its internal financial controls and reporting systems were ineffective for several years, despite receiving unqualified audit opinions from the Auditor-General.

The revelation came during a heated Standing Committee on Public Accounts session, where LTA chief executive officer Irimaia Rokosawa faced tough questioning over long-standing weaknesses in financial management.

“We assessed the quality of financial statements for 2020 and 2021 to be ineffective,” a representative from the Auditor-General’s office said.

“There were major corrections made before clean opinions could be issued.”

Mr Rokosawa confirmed that poor internal systems contributed to the delays and difficulties in producing accurate financial reports.

“Even though our books were unqualified, there were still au-dit concerns that needed fixing,” he said.

Mr Rokowasa told the commit-tee that one major issue was the reconciliation of revenue collected by LTA on behalf of the Government, amounting to over $6 million in 2023 alone with Ministry of Finance records.

The discrepancies, he said, took time to resolve.

Committee member Hem Chand questioned whether LTA had been operating for years without adequate internal checks.

“Does this mean that regular audits, risk assessments and staff training weren’t being done before?” he questioned.

Mr Rokosawa admitted that the agency was now only beginning to implement stronger controls, including staff training and tighter financial deadlines.

Assistant Minister for Finance and Committee chairperson Esrom Immanuel pressed the point stating: “You had clean reports, but they came with heavy effort, major revisions and years of delay.

That tells us something is broken inside”.

While LTA claims improvements are now in place, MPs said the agency must be held to high-er standards of accountability moving forward.

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