Tavua council owes Auditor-General $80,000

Tavua Town Council owes about $80,000 to the Auditor-General’s Office in audit fees as financial pressures continue to affect its ability to keep its financial and annual reports up to date.

The debt was revealed during Parliament’s Standing Committee on Social Affairs hearing on the council’s 2020 Annual Report on Thursday.

Council corporate manager Praveen Prakash told the committee that financial reports had been completed up to the 2022-2023 financial year, but the council was facing difficulties completing its remaining reports.

Mr Prakash said the council did not have enough technical staff to prepare financial statements to the required accounting standards and had to outsource the work.

“That costs a substantial amount of money,” Mr Prakash said.

He said the Auditor-General’s Office charged the council about $9,000 a year for audits.

“At present, we owe about approximately $80,000 to the Auditor-General's Office for the audit of our accounts till financial year 2022-2023,” he said.

Mr Prakash said the debt was one of the challenges affecting the completion of the council’s annual reports.

The council also told the committee that its fees and charges had not been increased for more than 19 to 20 years, while the cost of materials, tools and labour had risen.

It has submitted proposals to increase fees and charges, which are now with the Solicitor-General’s Office awaiting gazetting.

Special Administrator Rajendra Raghlu said the council had a small revenue base and was largely able to meet only its operational costs.

“Council needed more revenue and government assistance to fund capital projects.” He said.

The committee urged the council to keep its reports updated so Parliament could better assess its current financial position and development needs.