By Loretta B Manele
Provinces have been making improvements in governance and this is something the Ministry of Provincial Government and Institutional Strengthening (MPGIS) has been working on to strengthen.
Wayne Gemu, minister for MPGIS highlighted this at the Sine Die Motion in parliament on Thursday, 19th this month.
He stated that one of the important things the ministry is working on is strengthening the governance of our nine provinces as well as governance in terms of their finances and discipline.
Speaking of the improvements made by provinces, Gemu said regarding provincial audit performance, for the past four years, Central province has been securing clean audit reports from the office of the Auditor General.
He added that Isabel province has also secured a clean audit report for 3 years in a row.
Meanwhile, Gemu said Western and Choiseul provinces have been securing qualified audit opinion for almost 10 years now in a row while Temotu province also claims qualified audit opinion for 2 years in a row.
He pointed out that whilst the national government audit is many years behind schedule, provincial government audits are up to date.
Gemu said for the past 10 years, no provincial government has submitted its financial statement late.
“All provincial governments have been submitting their financial statements on or before 31st Dec as required by section 39;1 and sub section 2 of the provincial government act 1997”
Gemu also stated that all statements are being prepared on international public sector accountable accounting standards cash basis.
Moreover, he said the PGSP (Provincial Governance Strengthening Programme) is also providing continuous training to all provincial treasury staff to understand the underlying concepts of the IPSA (initial poverty and social assessment).
Gemu noted that there is also huge improvement in participatory planning, social accountability and performance of ward and provincial forums.
