By JACOB POK
The National Parliament would soon be placed on the spot light for gross abuse of public funds over the years by senior management staffs of the national parliamentary services.
While investigations are still being carried out into the financial expenditures of the operation of parliament over the years, initial findings by the Compliance Audit Team revealed a gross misuse of an alarming figure of close to K59 million within a period of two years, 2011-2012. That figure is expected to double or triple when the investigation completed in full, according to the investigation team.
The Audit and Compliance Team was sanctioned by the current Speaker of parliament Theo Zurenouc to investigate and audit financial expenditures of parliament after concerns were raised by parliament employees and the general public regarding alleged mismanagement and abuse of parliament funds and assets over the years.
Speaker Zurenouc yesterday met with the investigation team to oversee the progress of investigations.
“The idea behind the investigations is to clear all mess and set the foundation
of parliament right,” Mr Zurenouc said.
He said parliament has to function properly as it is the key arm of government that passes important laws and decisions for the country.
“If we are talking about restoring the nation and weed out corruption, it has to start within parliament. If we abandon it, then parliament could collapse,” Mr Zurenouc said.
He said parliamentarians had the moral obligation to speak on the issue, but this never happened and therefore the Audit and Compliance Team was set up to investigate and audit the books of parliament.
While explaining on the progress of the investigations to the Speaker, team leader of the Audit Compliance Team, Kenneth Thompson said that the manner in which parliament had operated over the years was totally inappropriate as no proper filing and recording systems were put in place for the safe keeping of all financial records pertaining to payments made for purposes of efficient bank reconciliation and auditing. He said the investigations have revealed that parliament had operated outside of the Public Service Management Act with no auditing done over the years. He said parliament had over the years been used as a bank for some people who easily get money whenever they wish.
Two arrests have been made so far since the team commenced investigations in October last year. High profile individuals including MPs and various organisations have been implicated and more arrests would be made after the completion of the investigations.
According to a list of bank statements provided by the investigation team, the most abused account among seven operational account of parliament was an Imprest account operated with BSP bank, Port Moresby.
He said parliament has to function properly as it is the key arm of government that passes important laws and decisions for the country.
“If we are talking about restoring the nation and weed out corruption, it has to start within parliament. If we abandon it, then parliament could collapse,” Mr Zurenouc said.
He said parliamentarians had the moral obligation to speak on the issue, but this never happened and therefore the Audit and Compliance Team was set up to investigate and audit the books of parliament.
While explaining on the progress of the investigations to the Speaker, team leader of the Audit Compliance Team, Kenneth Thompson said that the manner in which parliament had operated over the years was totally inappropriate as no proper filing and recording systems were put in place for the safe keeping of all financial records pertaining to payments made for purposes of efficient bank reconciliation and auditing. He said the investigations have revealed that parliament had operated outside of the Public Service Management Act with no auditing done over the years. He said parliament had over the years been used as a bank for some people who easily get money whenever they wish.
Two arrests have been made so far since the team commenced investigations in October last year. High profile individuals including MPs and various organisations have been implicated and more arrests would be made after the completion of the investigations.
According to a list of bank statements provided by the investigation team, the most abused account among seven operational account of parliament was an Imprest account operated with BSP bank, Port Moresby.
That account, according to the investigation team, was a cheque account
purposely set for emergency and contingency for the Speaker and parliamentary
services. All expenditure from that account was subject to the Public Finance
Management Act. However, that account had been grossly abused and funds
misappropriated in millions of kina. In most instances, cheques drawn were
written out in cash and no evidence at the time of audit to substantiate the
purposes existed.
The most recent case was the abuse of a K25 million allocated to parliament for infrastructure and rehabilitation work.
According to a bank statement provided by the investigation team on the transactions of the funds, it indicated that the funds were transferred from the main operating account to the Imprest account and payments ranging from K100,000 and above were made to various parliamentary staffs, MPs, individuals and organisations for unknown purposes.
The list provided by the investigation team indicated that excessive payments were made for hire cars, security personnel, legal fees, consultancy fees, cash advance for staffs and financial assistance for staffs.
The most recent case was the abuse of a K25 million allocated to parliament for infrastructure and rehabilitation work.
According to a bank statement provided by the investigation team on the transactions of the funds, it indicated that the funds were transferred from the main operating account to the Imprest account and payments ranging from K100,000 and above were made to various parliamentary staffs, MPs, individuals and organisations for unknown purposes.
The list provided by the investigation team indicated that excessive payments were made for hire cars, security personnel, legal fees, consultancy fees, cash advance for staffs and financial assistance for staffs.
The Compliance Audit team also noted that several millions of kina were paid to
various contractors (named) to carryout maintenance and refurbishment work.
However, the engagement of those contractors and their payments were not made in
accordance with the requirements and relevant procedures under section 21 of the
Parliamentary Services Act.
Further investigations are still being carried out by the team and a proper report would be furnished and presented to the speaker after the conclusion of the investigations.
Further investigations are still being carried out by the team and a proper report would be furnished and presented to the speaker after the conclusion of the investigations.
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