Questions raised in Parliament over outstanding audit of government accounts

Assembly convened on Wednesday December 3rd with discussions around Accountability and transparency of government administering of funds that are appropriated.

Opposition Member of Parliament O’love Jacobsen questioned the government over the outstanding Audit of the Government accounts.

The last audited accounts of the Niue Government was for the 2013/2014 financial year. 

BCN News spoke to Audit NZ Director Kelly Rushton and team leader of the Audit NZ team who’ve been on the island for a few weeks.

He confirmed that the last complete audited set of accounts for the Niue Government was for the 2013/2014 financial year and that they are close to completing the audit for the 2014/2015 financial years. 

When asked why the audits are overdue, Rushton says that there are a variety of reasons for this and that Audit NZ will be presenting a status report to the Assembly in the next few weeks. 

He said that Audit NZ presented a status report to the Assembly in July 2018. Kelly Rushton says that they are progressing with the remaining outstanding audits. 

The Premier and Minister Billy Talagi confirmed to the Fono Ekepule yesterday that the Niue Government has secured the services of international accounting firm Deloittes to assist the government complete the government’s financial accounts. 

Jacobsen also suggested more transparency with SOE’s audit reports.

Currently, only cabinet appropriates funds for SOE’s. 

Under the Niue Philatelic and Numismatic Act 2011, SOE’s are only responsible to cabinet. This came about after the amendment to the Act  but previously Parliamentary oversight was included in the original 1996 Act.