Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1694248131671.pdf (Fiji)
REPORT OF THE AUDITOR-GENERAL OF THE REPUBLIC OF FIJI 2018 Audit Report on Social Services Sector PARLIAMENT OF 0 FIJI PARLIAMENTARY PAPER NO.
149 OF 2019 REPORT OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL OF THE REPUBLIC OF FIJI – 31 JULY 2018 OFFICE OF THE AUDITOR-GENERAL – REPUBLIC OF FIJI Location : Level 8, Ratu Sukuna House 2-10 MacArthur Street Suva, Fiji PO BOX : 2214, Government Buildings Suva, Fiji TELEPHONE : (679) 330 9032 EMAIL : info@auditorgeneral.gov.fj WEBSITE : www.oag.gov.fj _________________________________________________________________________________________ SUMMARY – SOCIAL SERVICES SECTOR 1 OFFICE OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL Excellence in Public Sector Auditing 6-8TH Floor, Ratu Sukuna House 2-10 McArthur St P. O.
Box 2214, Government Buildings Suva, Fiji Telephone: (679) 330 9032 Fax: (679) 330 3812 E-mail: info@auditorgeneral.gov.fj Website: http://www.oag.gov.fj File: 102 15 November 2019 The Honorable Ratu Epeli Nailatikau Speaker of the Parliament of the Republic of Fiji Parliament Complex Gladstone Road SUVA.
Dear Sir 2018 AUDIT REPORT ON SOCIAL SERVICES SECTOR In accordance with section 152(13) of the Constitution of the Republic of Fiji, I am pleased to transmit to you my report on the Social Services Sector for 2018 excluding Head 21 – Ministry of Education, Heritage and Arts, Head 22 – Ministry of Health and Medical Services, Head 23 – Department Housing and Head 26 – Higher Education Institutions.
A copy of the report has been submitted to the Minister for Economy who as required under section 152(14) of the Constitution shall lay the report before Parliament within 30 days of receipt, or if Parliament is not sitting, on the first day after the end of that period.

Yours sincerely Ajay Nand AUDITOR-GENERAL Encl.


REPORT OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL OF THE REPUBLIC OF FIJI – 31 JULY 2018 The Office of the Auditor-General – Republic of Fiji The Office of the Auditor-General is established as an Independent Office by the Constitution of the Republic of Fiji.
Its roles and responsibilities include audit of the accounts of the Consolidated Fund and whole of Government financial statements and annual appropriation statement required to be included in the whole of Government annual report for a financial year under the Financial Management Act 2004.

The audit extends to the accounts of all money received or held by a State entity, whether or not for purposes of Government.

These audits are carried out by the Auditor- General on behalf of Parliament.
At least once every year, the Auditor General must report to Parliament on the audits conducted and on other significant matters the Auditor-General wishes to bring to the attention of Parliament.

This report satisfies these requirements.

As a result of its mandate, the Office of the Auditor-General has a distinctive view of the entire public sector of matters affecting financial and non-financial performance.
We use this perspective to achieve our vision of excellence in public sector auditing by providing comprehensive analysis and value-adding recommendations.

The Office of the Auditor-General notes the impact of its reports to Parliament on the ordinary citizens and strives for accuracy and high quality reporting including recommendations which are not only value-adding to the entity subject to audit but its customers, the general public as well.
_________________________________________________________________________________________ SUMMARY – SOCIAL SERVICES SECTOR 2 REPORT OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL OF THE REPUBLIC OF FIJI – 31 JULY 2018 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1.0 2.0 3.0 Sector Summary ............................................................................................................................ 4 Types of audit opinions issued ..................................................................................................... 7 Current approach on reporting to Parliament ........................................................................... 8 Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 8 Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................... 8 4.0 Audit Opinion results .................................................................................................................... 9 Modified opinions ............................................................................................................................. 9 Unmodified opinions ....................................................................................................................... 10 Quality of draft agency financial statements ................................................................................. 11 Timeliness of financial reporting
 .................................................................................................... 11 Year-end closing process ................................................................................................................ 11 Appendix A: Assessment of financial governance ............................................................................... 13 Internal control framework ............................................................................................................ 13 Internal controls .............................................................................................................................. 13 Preparation of draft 2017-2018 agency financial statements ........................................................ 14 Quality of draft financial statements by entities ........................................................................... 15 Timeliness of draft financial statements for entities ..................................................................... 15 Timeliness of Provision of Management Comments and Signing of Financial Statements ........ 15 Result summary ............................................................................................................................... 15 Appendix B: Audit Opinion Results ....................................................................................................... 17
17 _________________________________________________________________________________________ SUMMARY – SOCIAL SERVICES SECTOR 3 REPORT OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL OF THE REPUBLIC OF FIJI – 31 JULY 2018 1.0 Sector Summary All ministries and departments prepare annual agency financial statements.
Permanent Secretaries and management of these agencies are responsible for the preparation and fair presentation of the financial statements in accordance with International Public Sector Accounting Standards Cash Basis and requirements of Finance Management Act 2004 and other applicable laws and regulations.
This responsibility includes designing, implementing and maintaining internal controls relevant to the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, selecting appropriate accounting policies, and making accounting estimates that are reasonable in the circumstances.
The report includes the audit for agencies completed as at 31 October 2019: The General Administration Sector includes: The Social Services Sector includes: Head 01 Head 02 Head 03 Head 05 Head 06 Head 07 Head 08 Office of the President Office of the Prime Minister and Immigration Office of the Attorney-General Ministry of i-Taukei Affairs Ministry of Defence & National Security Ministry of Employment, Productivity and Industrial Relations Ministry of Foreign Affairs Head 09 Independent Bodies: Office of the Auditor General Judiciary Department Parliament Office Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions Head 24 Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation Head 25 Ministry of Youth and Sports The Economic Services Sector includes: Head 30 Ministry of Agriculture Head 34 Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism Head 35 Ministry of Sugar The Infrastructure Sector includes: Head 40 Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport Head 41 Water Authority of Fiji Head 42 Ministry of Waterways Head 43 Fiji Roads Authority Head 13 Head 15 Head 15A Head 16 Head 16A Head 17 Head 18 of Independent Commissions Ministry of Justice Fiji Corrections Service Ministry of Communication Department Technology and Computing Services Ministry of Civil Service Ministry of Rural and Maritime Development Republic of Fiji Military Forces Fiji Police Force Information Head 19 Head 20 Head 49 Peacekeeping Missions _________________________________________________________________________________________ SUMMARY – SOCIAL SERVICES SECTOR 4 REPORT OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL OF THE REPUBLIC OF FIJI – 31 JULY 2018 It is important to note that the deficiencies highlighted in this report were identified during our audit and may have been subsequently resolved.
These have been included in this report as they impacted on the overall system of control of the ministries and departments as at 31 July 2018.

Results of Our Audits Head(s) Agency General Administration Sector Ministry of Economy 04,50,51 & 52 Date Acceptable Draft Accounts Received for Audit Audit Status as at 31/10/19 31/10/18 Audit conduct in progress.
2017-2018 Financial Statements of Government Outstanding 09 Fijian Elections Office 22/10/19 14 Ministry of Disaster Management and Meteorological Services 07/03/19 Social Services Sector Ministry of Education, Heritage and Arts 27/03/19 21 & 26 Higher Education Institutions 22 23 31 32 33 Ministry of Health and Medical Services Department of Housing Economic Services Sector Ministry of Fisheries Ministry of Forestry Ministry of Lands and Mineral Resources 18/02/19 19/08/19 25/01/19 28/11/19 23/04/19 36 Ministry of Public Enterprises 31/10/18 37 Ministry of Local Government 38 Ministry of Environment 41 Infrastructure Sector Water Authority of Fiji 20/02/19 20/02/19 06/03/19 first draft 2018 Draft Financial Statements of Government are yet to be submitted for audit.
The 2018 Financial Statements was received on 02/07/19.

Due to errors and omissions, a second draft was submitted on 22/10/19.

Audit yet to commence.

Audit audited statements issued signing on 24/10/19.

with financial for completed letter Draft management sent for comments on 21/10/19.

Comments yet to be received.

Audit in finalization stage.

Audit in finalization stage.

completed Audit conduct in progress.

Audit conduct in progress.

Audit conduct completed with exit meeting held on 21/10/19.
The Ministry is working on to resolve the audit findings.

Audit audited statements issued signing on 18/06/19.

Draft management sent 25/10/19.

Draft management sent 21/10/19.

letter for comments on letter for comments on with financial for 2017 and 2018 draft account submitted together.
_________________________________________________________________________________________ SUMMARY – SOCIAL SERVICES SECTOR 5 REPORT OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL OF THE REPUBLIC OF FIJI – 31 JULY 2018 2017 audit in finalization stage.

43 Fiji Roads Authority 22/11/18 2018 FS received and yet to be audited.

Audit statements stage.

financial finalization for 2018 in As at 31 October 2019, we issued audit opinions on 29 agency financial statements of ministries and departments for the 2017-2018 financial year.
Audit of 15 agencies have been delayed.
The delay in audits of agencies were primarily due to the following: • Delay in submission of acceptable draft accounts for audits; • As a result of delay in submission of acceptable draft accounts for audit, the assigned resources were diverted to other audits for which accounts were received on time; • Relevant information/records not provided for audit on a timely basis; • Entities deciding to address issues raised in draft audit reports and resubmission of financial statements for audit; and • The delay in the finalization of the 2016/2017 Financial Statements of Government affected resource to some extent as officers continuously had to be re-engaged in the audit.
Efforts are being made to complete the audit of the agencies.

Details of status of pending audits are provided in table below.

Quality and Timelines of Financial Statements The submission of acceptable financial statements for audit were generally delayed.

However, the quality of agency financial statements have largely improved.

We issued unmodified opinions on 22 agency financial statements out of the 29 audited for financial year 2017-2018.
In accordance with International Standards on Auditing, we express an unmodified opinion (unqualified) when the financial statements are prepared in accordance with the Financial Management Act 2004, Financial Management (Amendment) Act 2016, Finance Instructions 2010, Finance (Amendment) Instructions 2016 and with relevant legislative requirements.
This type of opinion indicates that material misstatements, individually or in the aggregate, were not noted in our audit which would affect the financial statements of an entity.
We issue a modified opinion (qualified) when having obtained sufficient appropriate audit evidence, we conclude that misstatements, individually or in the aggregate, are material, but not pervasive, to the financial statements; or we are unable to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence on which to base the opinion, but the auditor concludes that the possible effects on the financial statements of undetected misstatements, if any, could be material but not pervasive.
Figure 1 – Comparison of Independent Audit Reports issued for 2017-2018 and 2016-2017 financial year Financial Year 2017 - 2018 Number of audits Percentage of total Unmodified Opinion 22 76% Modified Opinion 7 24% Financial Year 2016 - 2017 Number of audits Percentage of total Unmodified Opinion 20 71% Modified Opinion 8 29% Source: Office of the Auditor-General (detailed comparison is provided in Appendix B – Audit Opinion Results) _________________________________________________________________________________________ SUMMARY – SOCIAL SERVICES SECTOR 6 REPORT OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL OF THE REPUBLIC OF FIJI – 31 JULY 2018 Majority of the ministries and departments audited as at 31 October 2019 submitted the draft financial statements for 2018 well after the deadline of 31 October 2018 set by Ministry of Economy.
Only a few agencies submitted of their draft financial statements on or before the deadline.

The efforts of the agencies which submitted the draft financial statements for audit on time are commended.

The draft financial statements for 2017-2018 of 21 or 69% of ministries and departments were not adjusted during our audit.

The remaining financial statements were adjusted through audit adjustments.
2.0 Types of audit opinions issued In accordance with International Standard on Auditing, we express an unmodified opinion (unqualified) when the financial statements are prepared in accordance with the Financial Management Act 2004, Financial Management (Amendment) Act 2016, Finance Instructions 2010, Finance (Amendment) Instructions 2016 and with relevant legislative requirements.
This type of opinion indicates that material misstatements, individually or in the aggregate, were not noted in our audit, which would affect the financial statements of an agency.
We issue a modified opinion (qualified) when having obtained sufficient appropriate audit evidence, we conclude that misstatements, individually or in the aggregate, are material, but not pervasive, to the financial statements; or we are unable to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence on which to base the opinion, but the auditor concludes that the possible effects on the financial statements of undetected misstatements, if any, could be material but not pervasive.
We include an Emphasis of Matter paragraph in the audit report to highlight an issue that will help the user better understand the financial statements.

We also include an Other Matter paragraph to highlight a matter that is relevant to users’ understanding of the audit report.
_________________________________________________________________________________________ SUMMARY – SOCIAL SERVICES SECTOR 7 REPORT OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL OF THE REPUBLIC OF FIJI – 31 JULY 2018 3.0 Current approach on reporting to Parliament On 5 February 2019, we reported the results of our audits for Ministries and Departments for financial year 2016-2017 by budget sectors when all audits (except for Ministry of Economy and Financial Statements of Government which were reported subsequently) were completed.
This affected the timeliness of our reporting of audits completed to Parliament.

To address this, audits of Ministries and Departments for financial year 2017-2018 which were completed as at 31 October 2019 have been included in this report.

Audit reports on audit of Ministries and Departments for financial year 2017-2018 which are subsequently completed will be included in separate reports to Parliament.
We will continue to work with Permanent Secretaries and Heads of Departments to further improve the timely completion of audits so that these can be reported to Parliament.

Introduction Each year, we audit the financial statements of State-agencies to provide assurance to their reliability.

Ministry of Economy advised all State agencies to provide the draft 2018 agency financial statements to the Auditor-General by 31 October 2018.
If agencies comply with the monthly and quarterly reporting requirements set by Finance Instructions 2010 throughout the year, the agencies should be able prepare high quality financial statements in a timely manner.

We assessed the quality and timeliness of financial statements prepared by 29 agencies for financial year ended 31 July 2018 by considering: • year-end closing process – whether accounts were closed-off on the agreed date.
• timeliness – whether complete draft 2018 financial statements were submitted for our audit by an agreed date.

• quality – the extent of accounting adjustments made during our audit.

Our assessment criteria and the result of our assessment for each ministry/department is included in Appendix A.

Conclusion A total of 29 ministries and departments were audited as at 31 October 2019.
Of these, unqualified audit reports were issued on 22 financial statements while audit reports for 7 financial statements were qualified.

It is evident from the audit that more concert efforts need to be taken to streamline year-end account closing process, improve on the timeliness of submission of draft financial statements for audit, and provision of management comments with signing of audited financial statements in a timely manner.
It is imperative that the Heads of Ministries and Departments take proactive actions to address the issues raised in this report and also improve on year-end account closing process, and improve on timeliness of provision of management comments and signing of audited financial statements.
Ajay Nand AUDITOR-GENERAL DATE: 15/11/19 _________________________________________________________________________________________ SUMMARY – SOCIAL SERVICES SECTOR 8 REPORT OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL OF THE REPUBLIC OF FIJI – 31 JULY 2018 4.0 Audit Opinion results Table A summarizes the audit opinions we issued on the 2017-2018 financial statements for State- agencies.
Table A - Audit opinions issued by OAG as at 31/10/19 for 2017-2018 financial year Unmodified opinions 22 Modified opinions 7 Modified opinions We issued modified opinions on 7 of the 2018 financial statements audited for various ministries and departments on the following grounds: 1.0 Department of Immigration • A variance of $515,175 exists between the Integrated Border Control Management System (IBMS) which records the Department of Immigration’s operating revenue and the FMIS general ledger.
• Detailed listings of work permit holders for whom security bond totaling $28,724,628 was held in trust as at 31 July 2018 were not substantiated by the Department of Immigration.

• An unreconciled variance of $125,618 exists between the Immigration Bond Trust Fund Account cash at bank balance and the General Ledger (FMIS) balance.
• The Department of Immigration was unable to provide appropriate supporting documents including payment vouchers to substantiate payments totaling $272,985 which were made from its Operating Account.

2.0 Ministry of Employment, Productivity and Industrial Relations • The Ministry received a sum of $60,000 from Ministry of Civil Service under the Shared Services Agreement.

The Ministry receipted the service fees into the OHS Consultancy Trust Fund Account instead of the Consolidated Fund Account.
Transfer of public funds into a trust account is improper as funds in trust are those funds other than public money.

• Proper reconciliation of trust accounts for the National Employment Centre, Employment Relations Tribunal, Occupational Health and Safety, Workmen Compensation, Wages Dispute and OHS Consultancy Trust Fund Accounts were not done.
Proper cash books were not maintained for the trust accounts, satisfactory explanations were not provided for variances totaling $119,783, stale cheques were not cleared and receipts and payments were not posted in the general ledger on a timely basis.

3.0 Judicial Department Significant lapse in reconciliations were noted and there was absence of detailed breakdown listings of beneficiaries and their current balances.
As such, the accuracy of the closing balance _________________________________________________________________________________________ SUMMARY – SOCIAL SERVICES SECTOR 9 REPORT OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL OF THE REPUBLIC OF FIJI – 31 JULY 2018 of $31,681,497 disclosed in the Judicial Trust Fund account Statement of Receipts and Payments for the year ended 31 July 2018 could not be ascertained.
4.0 Ministry of Rural and Maritime Development Included in the Provincial Trust Fund Accounts are funds received for Rural Housing Scheme 1 totaling $1,173,893 and one-third self-help projects totaling $553,611.

However, the Ministry did not maintain listing to show detailed breakdown of funds held.

5.0 Fiji Police Force The Force did not include as part of its agency financial Statements the Trust Fund Account Statement of Receipts and Payments for the Force Band Trust Fund Account.
Receipts totaling $84,542 and payments amounting to $66,485 were made from the account for the period ended 31 July 2018.

In addition, the Force Band account transactions were not recorded in the FMIS General Ledger.
6.0 Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation • Statement of Receipts and Expenditure includes Operating Grants and Transfers balance of $89,639,571 which comprises of payments made for Social Pension Scheme of $37,116,301, Poverty Benefit Scheme of $40,102,286, and Food Vouchers for Rural Pregnant Mothers of $966,152 and Child Protection Allowance of $7,062,188.
An unreconciled variance of $8,802,261 exists between the General Ledger balance of $85,246,927 and the amount released to bank of $76,444,666 for the year ended 31 July 2018.

• Mispostings in Travel and Communication expenditure by $204,579 and Purchase of Goods and Services expenditure by $735,010 resulted in overstatement of the respective operating expenditure.
Moreover, mispostings in Operating Grants and Transfers expenditure resulted in understatement of the account by $944,262 for the year ended 31 July 2018.

The Ministry was unable to process the adjustment due to insufficient funds in the respective Standard Expenditure Groups.
7.0 Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport • An unreconciled variance of $1,405,134 exists between the Consolidated TMA balance sheet cash at bank balance of $3,303,882 and consolidated bank reconciliation balance of $1,898,748 as at 31 July 2018.

Consequently, the accuracy and completeness of the Cash at bank balance of $3,303,882 stated in the Consolidated TMA balance sheet as at 31 July 2018 could not be confirmed.

• The Energy Trust Account had a balance of $2,445,195 as at 31 July 2018.
The closing balance comprises of refunds for FEA Grid and House wiring, bond payment for projects and revenue bills collected from Solar Home Systems.

The Ministry has not maintained appropriate details of this Trust Fund account.

Unmodified opinions We issued unmodified opinions on 22 or 76% of the 2018 financial statements which were audited for various ministries and departments.

This means that material misstatements were not noted in majority of the agencies which were audited.
_________________________________________________________________________________________ SUMMARY – SOCIAL SERVICES SECTOR 10 REPORT OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL OF THE REPUBLIC OF FIJI – 31 JULY 2018 Quality of draft agency financial statements The extent of audit adjustments made to draft financial statements indicates the effectiveness of the agency’s internal review processes to identify and correct errors before these are provided for audit.
Twenty One (21) ministries and departments prepared good quality draft financial statements that did not require any adjustments.

Adjustments passed on draft financial statements for Six (6) ministries and departments were not material.

While most material adjustment was made for financial statements of three (3) ministries and departments.
Timeliness of financial reporting To be useful to users, financial statements should be completed and made available as soon as possible after close of financial year.

Information in financial statements becomes less relevant to users as the time passes from close of financial year.

The deadline set by Ministry of Economy for submission of draft financial statements was 31 October 2018.

Table B - Agencies which met or missed the agreed timeline for submission of draft financial statements.
Timeline Met Timeline not Met 1.

Office of the Attorney General 2.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs 3.

Office of the Auditor General 4.

Office of the Director of Public 1.

Judiciary Department 2.

Ministry of Justice 3.

Parliament Office 4.

Ministry of Civil Service and Public Service Prosecutions Commission 5.

Fiji Independent Commission Against Corruption 6.

Fiji Military Force 5.

Fiji Corrections Services 6.

Ministry of Rural and Maritime Development and National Disaster Management 7.
Fiji Police Force 8.

Ministry of Communication 9.

Office of the President 10.

Office of the Prime Minister and Immigration 11.

Ministry of i-Taukei Affairs 12.

Ministry of Defence, National Security 13.

Ministry of Employment, Productivity and Industrial Relations 14.

Department of Information Technology and Computing Services 15.

Ministry of Youth and Sports 16.

Ministry of Sugar 17.

Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism 18.

Ministry of Waterways 19.

Ministry of Agriculture 20.


Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation 21.

Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport 22.

Peacekeeping Missions Year-end closing process _________________________________________________________________________________________ SUMMARY – SOCIAL SERVICES SECTOR 11 REPORT OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL OF THE REPUBLIC OF FIJI – 31 JULY 2018 On 12 June 2018, Permanent Secretary for Economy issued Circular No.
03/2018 to Permanent Secretaries, Heads of Departments, High Commissioners and Ambassadors in Fiji Overseas Missions in which procedures for closing of 2018 accounts and times were detailed.
The key focus areas in the circular were: • Closing date for journal adjustments by 10 August 2018 • Clearance of inter-departmental clearance accounts by 3 August 2018 • Monitoring of un-presented cheques by 31 July 2018 • Clearance of stale cheques by 22 August 2018 • Annual Board of Survey on Drawings Account cheques by 22 August 2018 • Retirement of imprests by 20 July 2018 • Cancellation of unprocessed purchase orders by 27 July 2018 • Processing of payments by 31 July 2018 and virements by 20 July 2018 • Completion of reconciliations by 29 August 2018 • Submission of arrears of revenue returns by 31 August 2018 When ministries and departments achieve the key focus areas highlighted by the Permanent Secretary for Economy by the given dates, they are more likely to prepare accurate and timely draft financial statements for audit.
Nine or 31% of the Ministries and Departments under the General Administration sector achieved all the key focus areas for closing of accounts set by Ministry of Economy while 20 or 69% managed to achieve 5 of 9 key processes within two weeks of due date.
_________________________________________________________________________________________ SUMMARY – SOCIAL SERVICES SECTOR 12 REPORT OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL OF THE REPUBLIC OF FIJI – 31 JULY 2018 Appendix A: Assessment of financial governance This section evaluates the effectiveness of the internal controls maintained by 21 ministries and departments.
Internal controls are processes designed and implemented by Permanent Secretaries, Heads of Departments and other personnel of ministries and departments to provide reasonable assurance about the achievement of a ministry or department’s objectives with regard to reliability of financial reporting effectiveness and efficiency of operations, and compliance with applicable laws and regulations.

The term “control” refers to any aspects of one or more components of internal control.
Permanent Secretaries, Heads of Departments and other personnel of ministries and departments are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements in accordance with the Financial Management Act 2004, Financial Management (Amendment) Act 2016 and Finance Instructions 2010, and for such internal control as they determine is necessary to enable preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatements, whether due to fraud or error.
Internal control issues noted during our audit are reported to the Permanent Secretary or Head of Department of ministries and departments.

Internal control framework During our audits, we assess the design and implementation of controls to ensure that they are suitably designed to prevent, detect and correct material misstatements.

Where audit strategy requires, we also test the operating effectiveness to ensure the internal controls are functioning as designed.
A deficiency occurs when internal controls are unable to prevent, detect or correct errors in the financial statements or where controls are missing.

A significant deficiency is a deficiency that either alone or in combination with multiple deficiencies may lead to a material misstatement in the financial statements.

It requires immediate management action.

Internal controls Internal controls are categorized against the following five components of internal control.
• Control Environment (CE) – is the set of standards, processes and structures that provide the basis for carrying out internal controls across the entity.

These include commitment to integrity and ethical values, independence of management to exercise oversight for the development and performance of internal control, documented structures, reporting lines and appropriate authorities such as delegated levels of authority and responsibilities in the pursuit of the entity’s objectives.
It is also includes commitment to attract, develop and retain competent individuals, and holding them accountable for their internal control responsibilities.

• Risk Assessment (RA) – involves a dynamic process for identifying and analyzing risks to achieve the entity’s objectives, forming a basis for determining how risks should be managed.
_________________________________________________________________________________________ SUMMARY – SOCIAL SERVICES SECTOR 13 REPORT OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL OF THE REPUBLIC OF FIJI – 31 JULY 2018 • Control Activities (CA) – these are established by policies and procedures to help ensure that management’s directives to mitigate risks to the achievement of objectives are carried out.
Control activities are performed at all levels of an entity and at various stages within business processes, and over the technological environment.

• Information and Communication Control (IC) – information is necessary for the entity to carry out internal control responsibilities in support of achievement of its objectives.

Communication occurs both internally and externally and provides the entity with the information needed to carry out internal control day-to-day controls.
Communication enables personnel to understand responsibilities and their importance for the achievement of objectives.

• Monitoring Activities (MA) – on-going evaluations, separate evaluations or some combination of the two are used to ascertain whether controls are present and functioning.

Findings are evaluated and deficiencies are communicated in a timely manner.
The following table outlines the rating we have used to assess internal controls: Rating Internal control assessment  Effective  Generally effective  Ineffective No deficiencies identified in internal controls Deficiencies identified in internal controls Significant deficiencies identified in internal controls Preparation of draft 2017-2018 agency financial statements On 12 June 2018, Permanent Secretary for Economy issued Circular No.
03/2018 to Permanent Secretaries, Heads of Departments, High Commissioners and Ambassadors in Fiji Overseas Missions in which procedures for closing of 2018 accounts and times were detailed.
The key focus areas in the circular were: • Closing date for journal adjustments by 10 August 2018 • Clearance of inter-departmental clearance accounts by 3 August 2018 • Clearance of stale cheques by 22 August 2018 • Annual Board of Survey on Drawings Account cheques by 22 August 2018 • Retirement of imprests by 20 July 2018 • Cancellation of unprocessed purchase orders by 27 July 2018 • Processing of payments by 31 July 2018 and virements by 20 July 2018 • Completion of reconciliations by 29 August 2018 • Submission of arrears of revenue returns by 31 August 2018 When ministries and departments achieve the key focus areas highlighted by the Permanent Secretary for Economy by the given dates, they are more likely to prepare accurate and timely draft financial statements for audit.
Rating Year-end close process assessment  Effective  Generally effective  Ineffective All 9 key processes completed by due date Five of 9 key processes completed within two weeks of due date Less than five of 9 key processes completed within two weeks of due date _________________________________________________________________________________________ SUMMARY – SOCIAL SERVICES SECTOR 14 REPORT OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL OF THE REPUBLIC OF FIJI – 31 JULY 2018 Quality of draft financial statements by entities The extent of audit adjustments made to draft financial statements indicates the effectiveness of an entity’s internal review processes before the accounts are submitted for audit.
We assessed the quality of financial statements by the impact these adjustments had on the total expenditures, operating results or net assets of the entity subject to our audit.

Rating Quality of draft financial statements assessment  Effective  Generally effective  Ineffective No adjustments were required Adjustments on total expenditure, operating results/net assets were less than one percent Adjustments on total expenditure.
operating results/net assets were more than one percent Timeliness of draft financial statements for entities To assess the timeliness of acceptable draft financial statements, we have compared the date the draft financial statements were due and the date it was received.
Rating  Effective  Generally effective  Ineffective Timeliness of draft financial statements assessment Acceptable draft financial statements received before or on 15 October 2018 Acceptable draft financial statements received on or before 31 October 2018 Acceptable draft financial statements received after 31 October 2018 Timeliness of Provision of Management Comments and Signing of Financial Statements To assess the timeliness of provision of management comments and signing of financial statements, we have compared the date the draft management letter and audited financial statements were issued to entity and the date management comments and signed accounts were received.
Accordingly, we have assessed timeliness for General Administration Sector as: Timeliness of Management Comments Received Within 14 days from issue of Draft Management Letter Timeliness of Signed Financial Statements Received After 15 days from issue of Financial Statements for signing Rating  Effective Rating  Ineffective Result summary The following table summarizes our assessment of controls, the 2016-2017 financial statement preparing processes and responses to the Office of the Auditor-General across the ministries and departments in the General Administration Sector which were subject to our audit.
_________________________________________________________________________________________ SUMMARY – SOCIAL SERVICES SECTOR 15                                                       REPORT OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL OF THE REPUBLIC OF FIJI – 31 JULY 2018 Ministry or Department Internal controls General Administration Sector CE RA CA IC MA Financial Statement Preparation Q YE T Responses to OAG MC SFS         1.
Office of the President         2.

Office of the Prime Minister         Department of Immigration         3.

Office of the Attorney-General         5.

Ministry of i-Taukei Affairs 6.

Ministry of Defence and National Security         7.

Ministry of Employment, Productivity and         Industrial Relations 8.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs Independent Bodies 9.


Office of the Auditor-General Judiciary Parliament Office of Prosecutions the Director of Public 13.

Independent Commissions: Independent Commission Against Fiji Corruption Public Service Commission 15.

Ministry of Justice 15A Fiji Corrections Service 16.

Ministry of Communication 16A Department of Information Technology & Computing Services 17.

Ministry of Civil Service 18.


Ministry of Rural and Maritime Development and National Disaster Management 19.

Republic of Fiji Military Forces 20.

Fiji Police Force Social Services Sector 24.

Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation 25.

Ministry of Youth and Sports Economic Services Sector 30.

Ministry of Agriculture 34.

Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism 35.

Ministry of Sugar Infrastructure Sector 40.

Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport 42.


Ministry of Waterways                                                                                                                                                                                     49.
Peacekeeping Missions           CE=Control Environment RA=Risk Assessment Q=Quality of draft financial statements IC=Information and Communication Control CA=Control Activities YE= Year-end close processes T=Timeliness of draft financial statements MA=Monitoring Activities MC=Management Comments provided SFS=Signed Audited financial statements returned _________________________________________________________________________________________ SUMMARY – SOCIAL SERVICES SECTOR 16 REPORT OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL OF THE REPUBLIC OF FIJI – 31 JULY 2018 Appendix B: Audit Opinion Results The following table presents comparison of the results of our audit of 2017-2018 financial statements with the results of 2016-2017 audit for ministries and departments in the General Administration Sector.
Ministry/Department General Administration Sector 1.

Office of the President 2.

Office of the Prime Minister and Dept of Immigration 3.

Office of the Attorney-General 5.

Ministry of i-Taukei Affairs 6.

Ministry of Defence and National Security 7.

Ministry of Employment, Productivity and Industrial Relations 8.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs Independent Bodies 9.

Office of the Auditor-General Judiciary Parliament Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions 13.
Independent Commissions: Fiji Independent Commission Against Corruption Public Service Commission 15.

Ministry of Justice 15A.Fiji Corrections Service 16.

Ministry of Communication 16A Department of Information Technology & Computing Services 17.

Ministry of Civil Service 18.

Ministry of Rural and Maritime Development and National Disaster Management 19.

Republic of Fiji Military Forces 20.

Fiji Police Force Social Services Sector 24.

Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation 25.
Ministry of Youth and Sports Economics Services Sector 30.

Ministry of Agriculture 34.

Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism 35.

Ministry of Sugar Infrastructure Sector 40.

Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport 42.

Ministry of Waterways 49.
Peacekeeping Missions 2017-2018 Financial Year Date Audit Report Signed Audit Opinion Type 2016-2017 Financial Year Audit Opinion Type 15/03/19 08/07/19 29/03/19 17/05/19 29/07/19 18/07/19 Unmodified Modified Unmodified Unmodified Unmodified Modified Unmodified Unmodified Unmodified Unmodified Modified Modified 02/10/19 Unmodified Unmodified 19/10/18 12/07/19 06/02/19 18/03/19 20/12/18 02/08/19 24/06/19 21/10/19 20/06/19 17/10/19 Unmodified Modified Unmodified Unmodified Unmodified Unmodified Unmodified Unmodified Unmodified Unmodified Unmodified Modified Unmodified Unmodified Unmodified Unmodified Modified Unmodified Unmodified Unmodified 02/08/19 09/04/19 Unmodified Modified Unmodified Modified 02/10/19 22/05/19 Unmodified Modified Modified Unmodified 31/10/19 03/06/19 Modified Unmodified Unmodified Unmodified 20/06/19 22/05/19 24/05/19 30/10/19 13/06/19 31/10/19 Unmodified Unmodified Unmodified Unmodified Unmodified Modified Modified Unmodified with EOM Unmodified Modified ---1 Unmodified 1 2017 – 2018 financial year was first year audited.
_________________________________________________________________________________________ SUMMARY – SOCIAL SERVICES SECTOR 17 REPORT OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL OF THE REPUBLIC OF FIJI – 31 JULY 2018 – SOCIAL SERVICES SECTOR Head 24 Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation Roles and Responsibilities The Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation is responsible for providing services and administering programmes that protect those who are most vulnerable, with the goal of reducing poverty in Fiji to negligible levels.
The Ministry’s work provides a social safety net that uplifts groups that are disadvantaged on the basis of gender, age, disability and economic standing to create a more level playing field in Fijian society.

The Ministry has authority over the Department of Social Welfare and Department of Women and oversees social protection programmes such as the Poverty Benefit Scheme, the Child Protection Allowance, the Food Voucher Program, the Social Pension Scheme and the Bus Fare Subsidy.
The Department of Social Welfare administers Fiji’s recently- reformed social welfare programmes, which include the Poverty Benefit Scheme, the Child Protection Allowance, the Food Voucher Program, the Social Pension Scheme and the Bus Fare Subsidy for the elderly and people with disability.

Funding across these programmes has been significantly increased in 2017-2018 by $42.3 million.
The Department is focused on ensuring this assistance is well targeted and administered in a transparent and accountable manner.

The Department is equally committed to ensuring that these programs do not create a culture of dependency, focusing efforts and energy on graduating individuals and families from “welfare to workfare”.

The Department also has the statutory responsibility to ensure the protection and wellbeing of children which includes the management of juvenile centres.
Strengthening protective environments for children at government, community and family levels is a key strategy.

This includes raising awareness at the community level, developing of life skills education for children, reviewing of legislations affecting children, and providing child-friendly services to the general public.
The Ministry also works to promote gender equality and women empowerment by mainstreaming the participation of women and girls in Fiji’s socioeconomic development and that mission is driven by the implementation of the National Gender Policy and the Women’s Plan of Action.

The Department of Women works with other Ministries and various local, regional and international NGOs to ensure that gender perspectives are addressed in all Government policies and initiatives to better promote gender equality.
Table of Contents PART A: FINANCIAL STATEMENTS .................................................................................................. 3 24.1 Audit Opinion ............................................................................................................................ 3 24.2 Statement of Receipts and Expenditure ................................................................................. 3 24.3 Appropriation Statement ......................................................................................................... 4 Trust Fund Account – Help for Home Trust ............................................................................ 5 24.4 ASSESSMENT OF FINANCIAL GOVERNANCE ................................................................... 7 PART B: 24.5 Internal Controls ....................................................................................................................... 7 24.6: Submission of FY 2017 - 2018 Draft Agency Financial Statements .......................................... 8 24.7: Quality of draft financial statements by entities ..................................................................... 9 24.8: Timeliness of draft financial statements .................................................................................. 9 24.9: Timeliness of Provision of Management Comments and Signing of Financial Statements .. 9 OTHER SIGNIFICANT MATTERS ....................................................................................... 10 24.10
10 24.10 Variance between General ledger and Banking Summary .................................................... 10 PART C: Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation Head 24: Page 1 REPORT OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL OF THE REPUBLIC OF FIJI – 31 JULY 2018 – SOCIAL SERVICES SECTOR 24.11 Misallocation of expenditures ................................................................................................. 11 24.12 Tenders Not Called ................................................................................................................... 12 24.13 National Council for Older Persons Not Established as Body Corporate .............................. 13 24.14 Government Wage Earners Payroll Variance between FMIS and Payroll Report ................ 14 24.15 Overtime Approval not obtained ............................................................................................ 15 24.16 Lack of audited accounts of grant recipients ......................................................................... 15 24.17 Finalization of the Financial Statements - Recurring issue ....................................................16 24.18 Risk management framework- Recurring issue ..................................................................... 17 24.19 Lack of internal controls on payments- Recurring issue ........................................................ 18 24.20 Anomalies in SLG 84 Accounts- Recurring issue ..................................................................... 19 24.21
19 24.21 Operating Trust Account Anomalies- Recurring issue .......................................................... 20 Appendix 1 - Mispostings in SEG 3, SEG 4, SEG 5 and SEG 6 ........................................................... 22 Appendix 2 - Mispostings within SEG 6 ........................................................................................... 23 Appendix 3: Lack of audited accounts for grant recipients ........................................................... 24 Appendix 4: Lack of internal controls in payments ....................................................................... 25 Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation Head 24: Page 2 REPORT OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL OF THE REPUBLIC OF FIJI – 31 JULY 2018 – SOCIAL SERVICES SECTOR PART A: FINANCIAL STATEMENTS 24.1 Audit Opinion The audit of the 2018 accounts of the Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation resulted in a qualified audit opinion.
The qualification was due to the following: • Statement of Receipts and Expenditure includes Operating Grants and Transfers balance of $89,639,571 which comprises of payments made for Social Pension Scheme of $37,116,301, Poverty Benefit Scheme of $40,102,286, and Food Vouchers for Rural Pregnant Mothers of $966,152 and Child Protection Allowance of $7,062,188.
An unreconciled variance of $8,802,261 exists between the General Ledger balance of $85,246,927 and the amount released to bank of $76,444,666 for the year ended 31 July 2018.

• Mispostings in Travel and Communication expenditure by $204,579 and Purchase of Goods and Services expenditure by $735,010 resulted in overstatement of the respective operating expenditure.
Moreover, mispostings in Operating Grants and Transfers expenditure resulted in understatement of the account by $944,262 for the year ended 31 July 2018.

The Ministry was unable to process the adjustment due to insufficient funds in the respective Standard Expenditure Groups.
Without further qualifying the above opinion, attention is drawn to the following: Internal Controls over procurement and account reconciliations were generally found to be weak and if not addressed promptly may result in material misstatements and possible financial losses in future.

24.2 Statement of Receipts and Expenditure The Ministry collected revenue totalling $29,020 and incurred a total expenditure of $106,879,217 for the year ended 31 July 2018.

Details are provided in Table 24.1.
Table 24.1: Statement of Receipts and Expenditure for 2018 Description State Revenue Agency Revenue Total Revenue Established staff Government wage earners Travel and communications Maintenance & operations Purchase of goods and services Operating grants and transfers Special expenditures Total Operating Expenditure 31 July 2018 ($) 11,553 17,467 29,020 6,668,882 2,337,894 787,355 986,991 2,592,356 89,639,571 2,798,501 105,811,550 31 July 2017 ($) 6,915 2,407 9,322 5,473,831 1,574,668 375,953 756,193 1,269,507 49,393,442 2,258,398 61,101,992 Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation Head 24: Page 3 REPORT OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL OF THE REPUBLIC OF FIJI – 31 JULY 2018 – SOCIAL SERVICES SECTOR Description Capital Construction Capital grants and transfers Total Capital Expenditure 31 July 2018 ($) --- 740,181 740,181 31 July 2017 ($) 88,116 952,817 1,040,933 Value Added Tax 327,486 227,308 Total Expenditure 106,879,217 62,370,233 State revenue increased by $4,638 or 67% in 2018 compared to 2017.
The increase was due to increase in Commission which is deducted at source from deductions for insurance premium and for other credit institutions.

Miscellaneous revenue increased by $15,060 or 626% in 2018 compared to 2017 due to clearance of unidentified returns for Accountable Advance and return of allowance for Social Protection Program recipients as a result of closed or invalid bank accounts.

Established Staff cost increased by $1,195,051 or 22% in 2018 compared to 2017.
This was due to Job Evaluation Exercise for Established staff and payment of overtime.

Government Wage Earners cost also increased by $763,226 or 48% in 2018 compared to 2017.

This is due to Job Evaluation Exercise for GWE and payment of overtime for GWE’s.

Travel & Communication costs increased by $411,402 or 109% in 2018 compared to 2017 due to payment of mobile phone charges and reimbursement of travel cost.
Maintenance & Operations costs increased by $230,798 or 31% in 2018 compared to 2017 due to increase in maintenance and fuel cost.

Purchase of Goods & Services expenditure increased by $1,322,849 or 104% in 2018 compared to 2017 due to increase in Commission charges in relation to monthly pay-out of Social Protection Program recipients and misposting of expenditures which were not adjusted at year-end.
Operating Grants & Transfers increased by $40,246,129 or 81% in 2018 compared to 2017 due to increase in payment for Social Protection Program recipients.

Significant payments made from Operating Grants & Transfers were for Social Pension Scheme of $37,116,301, Poverty Benefit Scheme of $40,102,286, Child Protection Allowance of $7,062,188, Allowance for Person with Disability of $1,290,980 and Women's Plan of Action of $1,412,333.
Special Expenditure increased by $540,103 or 24% in 2018 compared to 2017 due to increase in payment for child protection program and increase in expenditure for Fiji National Women’s Expo.

Capital Grants and Transfers decreased by $212,636 or 22% in 2018 compared to 2017 due reduction in payments made for Welfare Graduation Program.
24.3 Appropriation Statement The Ministry incurred expenditure totalling $106.9 million in 2017-2018 against a revised budget of $113.4 million, resulting in a saving of $6.5 million or 5.7%.
Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation Head 24: Page 4 REPORT OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL OF THE REPUBLIC OF FIJI – 31 JULY 2018 – SOCIAL SERVICES SECTOR The savings of $4,412,518 in Operating Grants & Transfers Allocation (SEG 6) was mainly due to newly introduced program on allowance for people living with disability for which the payments started in October 2017.

The delay in payment was due to training provided to staff on the new program.
In addition, the unused and unredeemed vouchers resulted in savings of $536,358 in food voucher program for rural pregnant mothers.

Savings in Capital Grants and Transfers (SEG 10) allocation was mainly due to identified site for western disability centre not being disability friendly which resulted in savings of $500,000 in Capital Grants to Organisations for Persons with Disability.

Details of expenditure against the revised budget are provided in Table 24.2.
Table 24.2: Appropriation Statement for 2018 SEG ITEM Budget Estimate ($) Appropriation Changes ($) Revised Estimate ($) a Actual Expenditure ($) b Lapsed Appropriation ($) (a-b) Established Staff Unestablished Staff Travel & Communication 1 2 3 4 Maintenance & Operations Purchase of Goods & 5 Services Operating Grants & Transfers Special Expenditure Total Operating Costs 6 7 6,874,609 1,529,391 470,000 933,700 1,855,342 (205,713) 6,668,896 808,524 345,872 157,991 763,645 2,337,915 815,872 1,091,691 2,618,987 6,668,882 2,337,894 787,355 986,991 2,592,356 96,237,312 3,055,785 110,956,139 (2,185,223) 312,885 (2,019) 94,052,089 3,368,670 110,954,120 89,639,571 2,798,501 105,811,550 Capital Construction Capital Purchase 8 9 10 Capital Grants & Transfers Total Capital Expenditure --- --- 1,838,000 1,838,000 --- --- --- --- --- --- 1,838,000 1,838,000 --- --- 740,181 740,181 14 21 28,517 104,700 26,631 4,412,518 570,169 5,142,570 --- --- 1,097,819 1,097,819 13 Value Added Tax 560,000 2,019 562,019 327,486 234,533 TOTAL EXPENDITURE 113,354,139 --- 113,354,139 106,879,217 6,474,922 24.4 Trust Fund Account – Help for Home Trust As at 31 July 2018, the Ministry had a credit balance of $190,107 in the Main Trust Account named Help for Home Trust.
Payments from this account during financial year 2017/2018 was to refund Fijians whose houses sustained damage during TC Winston and had repaired their homes from own funds.
Refunds were made as follows and the maximum amount which can be refunded are shown below:  Roofing damage (partial of full) or destruction of supporting walls and home is on squatter land or land under a vakavanua arrangement or similar arrangement - $1,500  Partially damaged roof - $1,500  Fully damaged roof - $3,000  Destruction of roof and supporting walls - $7,000 Since this trust account was opened in financial year 2017/2018, there are no comparatives for the previous year.
Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation Head 24: Page 5 REPORT OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL OF THE REPUBLIC OF FIJI – 31 JULY 2018 – SOCIAL SERVICES SECTOR Table 24.3: Statement of Receipts and Payments for 2018 Description Opening Balance Receipts: Revenue Returned Cheque’s Total Receipts Payments: Bank Fees Help For Homes Refund Payment to Recipients Total Payments Closing Balance as at 31 July 2018 31 July 2018 ($) --- 980,000 10,500 990,500 62 800,331 800,393 190,107 31 July 2017 ($) --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation Head 24: Page 6 REPORT OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL OF THE REPUBLIC OF FIJI – 31 JULY 2018 – SOCIAL SERVICES SECTOR PART B: ASSESSMENT OF FINANCIAL GOVERNANCE 24.5 Internal Controls During our audits, we assess the design and implementation of controls to ensure that they are suitably designed to prevent, detect and correct material misstatements.
Where audit strategy requires, we also test the operating effectiveness to ensure the internal controls are functioning as designed.

A deficiency occurs when internal controls are unable to prevent, detect or correct errors in the financial statements or where controls are missing.

A significant deficiency is a deficiency that either or alone or in combination with multiple deficiencies may to lead to a material misstatement in the financial statements.

It requires immediate management action.


Internal controls are categorized against the following five components of internal control.

• Control Environment (CE) – is the set of standards, processes and structures that provide the basis for carrying out internal controls across the entity.
These include commitment to integrity and ethical values, independence of management to exercise oversight for the development and performance of internal control, documented structures, reporting lines and appropriate authorities such as delegated levels of authority and responsibilities in the pursuit of the entity’s objectives.

It also includes commitment to attract, develop and retain competent individuals, and holding them accountable for their internal control responsibilities.
Examples of issues which fall under this category are ethical breaches, gaps in internal controls or controls are non-existent, individuals are not held accountable for breaches in control or entities code of ethics, staff recruitment, and training and professional development, performance assessment and succession planning matters.
• Risk Assessment (RA) – involves a dynamic process for identifying and analysing risks to achieve the entity’s objectives, forming a basis for determining how risks should be managed.

Examples of issues which would fall under this category are absence of risk management framework, operational including fraud and enterprise risks not identified, assessed and mitigated and impact of changes in business processes on controls not identified and assessed.
• Control Activities (CA) – these are established by policies and procedures to help ensure that management’s directives to mitigate risks to the achievement of objectives are carried out.

Control activities are performed at all levels of an entity and at various stages within business processes, and over the technology environment.
Examples of issues which would fall under this category are general controls relating to information technology, documentation of procedures which have in-built checks and balances which are aligned to the policies of the entity.

Specific control activities include those relating to authorization, performance reviews, information processing, physical controls, and segregation of duties.
Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation Head 24: Page 7 REPORT OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL OF THE REPUBLIC OF FIJI – 31 JULY 2018 – SOCIAL SERVICES SECTOR • Information and Communication Control (IC) – information is necessary for the entity to carry out internal control responsibilities in support of achievement of its objectives.

Communication occurs both internally and externally and provides the entity with the information needed to carry out day-to-day controls.
Communication enables personnel to understand internal control responsibilities and their importance for the achievement of objectives.

Examples of issues which would fall under this category are reporting to boards and line ministries of entities on matters relating to internal controls • Monitoring Activities (MA) – on-going evaluations, separate evaluations or some combination of the two are used to ascertain whether controls are present and functioning.
Findings are evaluated and deficiencies are communicated in a timely manner.

Examples of issues which would fall under this category are self-assessment by entities to determine whether internal controls are present and function.

This may include the establishment of independent internal audit functions within entities which would assist in identifying any gaps in controls.
A summary of assessment of key controls based on our audit was as follows: Control Environment Risk Assessment Control Activities    Information & Communication Control  Monitoring Activities  In view of the above, we have assessed the internal controls of the Ministry as: Rating Internal control assessment  Generally effective Deficiencies identified in internal controls 24.6: Submission of FY 2017 - 2018 Draft Agency Financial Statements On 12 June 2018, Permanent Secretary for Economy issued Circular No.
03/2018 to Permanent Secretaries, Heads of Departments, High Commissioners and Ambassadors in Fiji Overseas Missions in which procedures for closing of 2018 accounts and times were detailed.

The final day for closing the 2018 accounts was 29 August 2018.
The key focus areas in the circular were: • Closing date for journal adjustments by 10 August 2018 • Clearance of Inter-departmental clearance accounts by 3 August 2018 • Monitoring of un-presented cheques by 29 August 2018 • Clearance of stale cheques by 22 August 2018 • Annual Board of Survey on Drawings Account cheques by 22 August 2018 • Retirement of annual imprests by 20 July 2018 • Cancellation of unprocessed purchase orders by 27 July 2018 • Processing of payments and virements by 13 August 2018 • Completion of reconciliations by 29 August 2018 Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation Head 24: Page 8 REPORT OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL OF THE REPUBLIC OF FIJI – 31 JULY 2018 – SOCIAL SERVICES SECTOR When ministries and departments achieve the key focus areas highlighted by the Permanent Secretary for Economy by the given dates, they are more likely to prepare accurate and timely draft financial statements for audit.
Based on information received, we have assessed the year-end close process as: Rating  Generally effective Year-end close process assessment 5 of 9 key processes completed within two weeks of due date 24.7: Quality of draft financial statements by entities The extent of audit adjustments made to draft financial statements indicates the effectiveness of an entity’s internal review processes before the accounts are submitted for audit.
We assessed the quality of financial statements by the impact these adjustments had on the operating results or net assets of the entity subject to out audit.

Our assessment for the Ministry was: Rating  Effective Quality of draft financial statements assessment No Adjustments were required 24.8: Timeliness of draft financial statements To assess the timeliness of acceptable draft financial statements, we have compared the date the draft financial statements were due and the date it was received.
Accordingly, we have assessed timeliness as: Rating  Ineffective Timeliness of draft financial statements assessment Acceptable draft financial statements received after 31 October 2018 24.9: Timeliness of Provision of Management Comments and Signing of Financial Statements To assess the timeliness of provision of management comments and signing of financial statements, we have compared the date the draft management letter and audited financial statements were issued to entity and the date management comments and signed accounts were received.
Accordingly, we have assessed timeliness as: Rating  Ineffective Rating  Effective Timeliness of Management Comments Received After 14 days from issue of Draft Management Letter Timeliness of Signed Financial Statements Received Signed financial statements received within 15 days Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation Head 24: Page 9 REPORT OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL OF THE REPUBLIC OF FIJI – 31 JULY 2018 – SOCIAL SERVICES SECTOR PART C: OTHER SIGNIFICANT MATTERS The Audit Act 1969 requires, amongst other things, that the Auditor-General must report on other significant matters which the Auditor-General wishes to bring to the attention of Parliament.
Other significant matters highlighted in this report, include control weaknesses which could cause or is causing severe disruption to the process or on the ability of an auditee to achieve process objectives and comply with relevant legislation.

It is likely that these issues may have an impact on the operations of the Ministry in future, if necessary action is not taken to address them.
It is important to note that the deficiencies detailed in this report were identified during our audit and may have been subsequently resolved by the Ministry.

These have been included in this report as they impacted on the overall system of control of the Ministry as at 31 July 2018.
24.10 Variance between General ledger and Banking Summary Each agency must have in place a cost effective system of internal controls which safeguards money and property against loss, avoids or detects accounting errors, and avoids unfavourable audit reports1.

It is imperative that the payments made as per the banking summary reconciles to the general ledger balance of the month.
We noted significant variances when comparing monthly banking summary with the general ledger balances for the payments made from Operating Grants and Transfers Allocation.

Refer to the table below for details of variances.
Table 24.4: Variance between Banking Summary and FMIS GL Social Welfare Schemes Social Pension Scheme (SPS) Poverty Benefit Scheme (PBS) Food Voucher for Rural Pregnant Mothers Care & Protection Allowance (C&P) TOTAL Root Cause/Implication Pay-out as per banking summary Amount ($) Pay-out as per general ledger Amount ($) 38,073,608 32,971,075 898,713 37,116,301 40,102,286 966,152 Variance Amount ($) 957,307 (7,131,211) (67,439) 4,501,270 7,062,188 (2,560,918) 76,444,666 85,246,927 8,802,261 The anomaly is due to pay-outs made for other expenditures apart from social pension scheme which were not adjusted.
1 Finance Instructions 2010 – Section 59(1) Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation Head 24: Page 10 REPORT OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL OF THE REPUBLIC OF FIJI – 31 JULY 2018 – SOCIAL SERVICES SECTOR Recommendation The Ministry should consider reconciling the banking summary to the FMIS GL on a timely basis.
Agreed Management Action The cause of the variance was due to the following: • • Fees charge to commission allocation Paymaster payable to DSW for Maritime clients The above is all charged to SPP Budget.

The Ministry is taking note of the recommendations.

However payments are made when funds are available in respective budgetary allocation.
Since the urgency of the payments are to be facilitated within the 1st week of the month, funds are source from the available funding at the time within the Social Protection Programme.

Payments cannot wait for funding to be released in a particular programme due to urgency of the clientele that the Ministry is serving.
Way forward: The Ministry is ensuring now that right programmes to be charge to the right allocation and also at the same time ensuring that funding is readily available before the 1st week of each month.

Also to be noted that the Ministry is ensuring that all misposting are to be regularized on time when funding is available.
Officer Responsible System Analyst and A/AO 24.11 Misallocation of expenditures The Senior Accounts Officer or Accounts Officer must not certify a payment as correct unless they are satisfied that the expenditure account it is charged to is correct.2 Mispostings in Travel and Communication expenditure by $204,579 and Purchase of Goods and Services expenditure by $735,010 resulted in overstatement of the respective operating expenditure.
Moreover, mispostings in Operating Grants and Transfers expenditure resulted in understatement of the account by $944,262 for the year ended 31 July 2018.

Refer to Appendix 1 & Appendix 2 for examples of mispostings.

The above misposting could not be corrected as there was not adequate savings in the respective allocations at item level.

Root Cause/Implication Discussions revealed that misposting of expenditures were due to insufficient funds in particular allocation.
This anomaly may cause the balance of individual SEGs to be incorrectly stated.

2 Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation Finance Manual 2013 section 2.8.4 (v) Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation Head 24: Page 11 REPORT OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL OF THE REPUBLIC OF FIJI – 31 JULY 2018 – SOCIAL SERVICES SECTOR Recommendations The Ministry should ensure that all transactions are posted to the correct allocations in the FMIS ledger.
Agreed Management Action The recommendation is noted and in future we will ensure that virement is carried out especially for the operational SEGs as per Financial Instructions.
Officer Responsible A/Principal Accounts Officer 24.12 Tenders Not Called Public tenders must be called for any procurement of goods, services or works valued at $50,001 or more, unless a Tender Board has approved an exemption in accordance with Procurement Regulation 30-(1).3 We noted that tender was not called for payments of tent/shed hired under the Homes Care Initiative which exceeded $50,001.

The table below shows details for payment made to companies for hire of tents.
Table 24.5: Payments above $50,000 not called for Tender Vendor Company A Company B Company C Total Amount ($) 84,366 54,776 128,625 267,767 Root Cause/Implication This finding is due to lack of proper planning.

Without the calling of tenders, the risk of not obtaining value for money increases.

Waiver of tender for the purchases was also not obtained which contributed to the non-compliance.
Recommendations The Ministry should ensure that there is proper planning for such projects where there is reasonable knowledge that the same product or service will be required.

The Ministry should ensure that Tender is called for procurement of goods, services and works above $50,001.
3 Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation Finance Manual 2013 section 2.3.1 Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation Head 24: Page 12 REPORT OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL OF THE REPUBLIC OF FIJI – 31 JULY 2018 – SOCIAL SERVICES SECTOR Agreed Management Action The Ministry has noted the recommendation in this case whereby this was an Emergency case due Post Natural Disaster and was expected for the Ministry to carry out the task thus no tenders was called due timeline.
Officer Responsible A/Principal Accounts Officer 24.13 National Council for Older Persons Not Established as Body Corporate The Council shall operate as a body corporate with perpetual succession and a common seal, and may: a) sue and be sued; b) acquire, hold, possess, dispose of or otherwise deal with any property; c) enter into contracts; and d) do all other acts that may be done in law by a body corporate.4 We noted that the National Council for Older Persons has not been operating as a body Corporate.
However, payments have been made to the Council which is operating within the Ministry.

Refer to table below for the amounts paid to the Council.
Table 24.6: Payments Made Year 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 TOTAL Amount ($) 88,154 176,396 141,439 198,075 246,962 851,026 Root Cause/Implication Non-establishment of the Council as a body Corporate could hinder strengthening the partnership and collaboration between the Government, families, community based organisations, traditional village communities, non-governmental organisations, civil society organisations and the private sector, in creating an inclusive, protective, healthy and supportive environment for older persons and represent the rights and interests of older persons in Fiji at all levels.
Recommendations The Ministry should ensure that the National Council of Older Persons Act is complied with.

4 National Council for Older Persons Act 2012- Section 3 Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation Head 24: Page 13 REPORT OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL OF THE REPUBLIC OF FIJI – 31 JULY 2018 – SOCIAL SERVICES SECTOR Agreed Management Action The Ministry notes the Audit recommendation.
The establishment of a statutory aspect via resourcing will be subject to the budgetary resourcing of the requirements to operate as a statutory arm.

Thus, the Ministry will progressively implement accordingly.
Officer Responsible Principal Welfare Officer /Older Persons Unit 24.14 Government Wage Earners Payroll Variance between FMIS and Payroll Report The Accounting Head must ensure that payroll reconciliations are carried out fortnightly for salaries and weekly for wages and copies sent to the Ministry of Finance5 We noted variance of $780,186 between the Financial Management Information System (FMIS) and the Ministry’s payroll report balance for the Government Wage Earners allocation.
The table below shows the detail of the variances: Table 24.7: Variance between Payroll Report and General Ledger Payroll Summary Analysis FMIS Wages as at 31/07/2018 Add Allowances Add Overtime Add Relieving Staff Total FMIS wages Less Payroll Summary Report as at 31/07/2018 Add Wages for Project Officers and Salaried Staff Variance Amount ($) 1,590,769 114,289 441,512 11,521 2,158,091 3,833,033 894,756 780,186 Root Cause/Implication Lack of reconciliation between the FMIS and Payroll report has resulted in the significant variance.
Recommendation The Ministry should ensure that variance noted is investigated and adjusted accordingly.

Agreed Management Action The Ministry notes the recommendation and will ensure that the variance is adjusted accordingly.
Officer Responsible A/Principal Assistant Secretary 5 Finance Instruction – Section 17(7) Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation Head 24: Page 14 REPORT OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL OF THE REPUBLIC OF FIJI – 31 JULY 2018 – SOCIAL SERVICES SECTOR 24.15 Overtime Approval not obtained Overtime work shall be approved only in essential circumstances and on the specific approval of the Permanent Secretary or Head of Department.6 We noted that specific approval of the Permanent Secretary was not obtained prior to staffs working overtime.
It was noted that the approval was only obtained for payment of overtime.

Refer to the table below for payment of overtime and meal Allowances.

Table 24.8: Payment of Overtime & Meal Allowances Pay No.

Overtime Amounts Plus Meals Amount ($) 49/2017 28/2018 29/2018 31/2018 Total 81,977 49,611 211,407 75,683 418,678 Root Cause/Implication The ministry does not have an overtime policy in place.

Lack of prior approval for overtime can lead to objectives of staffs working overtime not being achieved.
Recommendations The Ministry should ensure that overtime work shall be approved only in essential circumstances and on the prior specific approval of the Permanent Secretary.

Agreed Management Action The Ministry notes the recommendation and is in the process of reviewing the Overtime Policy and implemented accordingly.
Officer Responsible A/Principal Assistant Secretary 24.16 Lack of audited accounts of grant recipients Applications for NGO Grants should be thoroughly scrutinised by the NGO Secretariat to ensure they contain the required information: Supporting documents ii.

Audited Accounts.7 In accordance to Section 6(b) of the Grant Agreements and the Ministry’s finance manual section 3.1.4, the recipients are to provide audited accounts to the Ministry or upon request by the Auditor General.
The Ministry was not able provide audited accounts for various grant recipients for our review.

Refer to Appendix 3 for details.

6 General Order 2011 section 418(a) 7 Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation Finance Manual 2013 section 3.1.4 Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation Head 24: Page 15 REPORT OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL OF THE REPUBLIC OF FIJI – 31 JULY 2018 – SOCIAL SERVICES SECTOR Furthermore, the grant agreement for Global Compassion was not provided for our review.
Hence, we were unable to verify the correctness of the grant amount, disbursement schedules, as well as the acquittals to ensure that funds amounting to $112,500 were used for the intended purpose.

Root Cause/Implication Lack of follow ups for submission of audited accounts by recipients by staffs responsible may have led to this anomaly.

Non-submission of audited accounts is a breach of grant agreement.
Recommendations The Ministry should ensure that the grant recipients are reminded to submit audited accounts.

Furthermore, all grant agreements must be properly maintained by the Ministry for audit purposes.

Agreed Management Action Action from Disability Unit: The Unit has put into place measures to ensure that the Audited Accounts, for our Grant recipients, are with the Unit before we table the 2019/2020 Financial Year Grants applications.
This is an oversight of the Unit, who has been working on the Narrative Reports with our grant recipients.

For new applicants (2018/2019FY) the Unit has ensured that the Audit Reports for 2018 is received, before we table Grants Applications for the new financial year to the Grants Committee Officer.
Officer Responsible Principal Welfare Officer Disability Scheme / Acting Director Family Services 24.17 Finalization of the Financial Statements - Recurring issue Each agency must prepare an annual report for submission to its Minister by 31 December in the following year8.
Each annual report must include financial statements which are prepared and signed in accordance with these Instructions, audited by the Auditor-General and accompanied by the audit opinion provided by the Auditor General.9 The audit of the financial statements of the Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation for the year ended 31 July 2018 was finalized after the above deadline.
Table 24.9: Re-submission Dates of the Draft Financial Statements Submission of Draft Financial Statement 1st Draft 2nd Draft 3rd Draft Date Received 31/10/2018 11/01/2019 12/06/2019 8 Finance (Amendment) Instruction 2016 – Section 69 9 Finance Instruction 2010 – Section 70 (2) Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation Head 24: Page 16 REPORT OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL OF THE REPUBLIC OF FIJI – 31 JULY 2018 – SOCIAL SERVICES SECTOR In addition, there was delay in providing the following records.
Refer to the Table below for details: Table 24.10: Dates Information Provided Information Requested Comments for movements in Actual Balances Approved Virements Comments on Temporary Appointments Reason for Savings Grant agreement Subsequent Drawings Bank Statements Audited Accounts for the Grant Recipients Date Received 24/01/2019 20/04/2019 11/03/2019 30/05/2019 16/04/2019 02/05/2019 30/10/2019 The audited financial statements for the Ministry was sent for signing on 08 October 2019 and the signed accounts was received from the Ministry on 30 October 2019.
Root Cause/Implication The delay in finalisation of the audit was due to Ministry making changes to the draft Financial Statements on 11/01/2019 and 12/06/2019.

There was also delay in provision of records from the Ministry.

Recommendations The Ministry should ensure that accurate financial statement is submitted for audit and records are properly maintained and made available for audit upon request.

Agreed Management Action Recommendation is noted by the Ministry and ensuring it is complied.
Officer Responsible A/Principal Accounts Officer 24.18 Risk management framework- Recurring issue It is a good practice to establish a risk management framework to have the Ministry’s management and respective Divisional Heads to jointly plan, implement, monitor and take action on evolving risks affecting the Ministry.
Risk management framework would provide a platform to identify various risks affecting the Ministry, management of the risk, develop appropriate internal control to mitigate the risks and continuous monitoring risks.

The mechanism to mitigate risks could include policies, procedures, training and awareness.

Review of the Ministry’s Corporate Governance revealed that there is no risk management framework in place.
As a result, the Ministry does not have written policies, procedures and guidelines to manage the following: Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation Head 24: Page 17 REPORT OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL OF THE REPUBLIC OF FIJI – 31 JULY 2018 – SOCIAL SERVICES SECTOR • Fraud control and anti-corruption • Disaster recovery and business continuity However, it was noted that the Ministry has developed a risk matrix.
Root Cause/Implication The Ministry may not be able to effectively identify risks and appropriately manage them in a timely manner.

Recommendations • The Ministry should work towards establishing a governance and accountability function that support the operations of the Ministry by providing financial and operational risk management of external reporting obligations.
Following the establishment of the governance and accountability function, a risk management framework should be developed and continuously used.

• The Ministry should consider developing a disaster recovery plan Agreed Management Action The Ministry will ensure that the policy will be develop in this current financial year.
Officer Responsible A/Principal Assistant Secretary and A/Principal Accounts Officer 24.19 Lack of internal controls on payments- Recurring issue An effective and cost effective system of internal control will ensure that wastage of funds, over expenditure and abuse of system, processes and resources do not occur.10 Immediately after payment has been effected, the Accounts clerk must stamp “paid” on all vouchers and supporting documentation to avoid any double payments.
11 Additionally, all payment vouchers prepared by the Accounts clerk must be certified by the Accounts Officer or the Senior Accounts Officer.
Competitive quotes, instead of public tenders, may be called for procurements 50,000 and less unless, the PS has approved an exemption in accordance with Procurement Regulation 29-(3).12 The Senior Accounts Officer or Accounts Officer must not certify a payment as correct unless they are satisfied that there is documentation that the goods, services or works have been received.13 We noted various anomalies relating to internal controls during review of payment records maintained by the Ministry.
Examples are as follows: 10 Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation Finance Manual 2013 Part 17 11 Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation Finance Manual 2013 section 2.8.9 12 Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation Finance Manual 2013 section 2.3.2 13 Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation Finance Manual 2013 section 2.8.4 Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation Head 24: Page 18 REPORT OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL OF THE REPUBLIC OF FIJI – 31 JULY 2018 – SOCIAL SERVICES SECTOR • Payment vouchers not stamped “PAID” • Payment vouchers were not certified • Competitive quotes not obtained • • Evidence of items received not attached to the payment vouchers Invoice not attached to payment vouchers Refer to Appendix 4 for details.
Root Cause/Implication Lack of internal controls increases risk of double payments, unauthorized payments and creates opportunities for fraud and misappropriation.

Recommendation The Ministry should strengthen compliance with internal controls over procurement of goods and services.

Agreed Management Action The Ministry has noted the recommendation and ensure that this is complied with.

Action has been taken for those vouchers not stamped paid and certified.
Competitive quotes could not be obtain for travel companies due timeline given to secure the seat.

Officer Responsible A/Principal Accounts Officer 24.20 Anomalies in SLG 84 Accounts- Recurring issue All funds released from the agencies and recorded on SLG84 shall be reconciled on a monthly basis and report sent to the paying agency.
At the end of each project, agencies are required to ensure proper clearing of the SLG84 account; and any outstanding balance in the SLG84 account are accounted for.14 We noted that the Ministry could not provide evidence that acquittals for SLG 84 Accounts totalling $1,071,784 were prepared and submitted to the Ministry of Economy.

Refer to Table below for details: Table 24.11: SLG84 Acquittals Not Provided Allocation Description JV No.
1-24101-24999-840101 1-24101-24999-840101-002 Refurbishment of Naibati House 1-24101-24999-840102 Donor’s Fund 1-24101-24999-840102-006 UNICEF Fund HOMECARE Initiative MOW006 MOW005 MOW001 MOW002 Total Amount Disbursed ($) 742,395 273,489 40,000 15,900 1,071,784 14 SLG 84 Reporting guide section 9.5 Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation Head 24: Page 19 REPORT OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL OF THE REPUBLIC OF FIJI – 31 JULY 2018 – SOCIAL SERVICES SECTOR Root Cause/Implication Discussions with the Ministry revealed that the acquittals were not prepared due to shortage of accounts staffs in the unit to carry out the preparation of and submission of acquittals.
Failure to provide acquittals poses a risk of funds not being used for its intended purposes.

The audit finding indicates inadequate controls and supervision in the administration of the SLG84 accounts.

Recommendation The Ministry should ensure that monthly acquittals are prepared and submitted to the Ministry of Economy on a timely basis.

Agreed Management Action The recommendation is noted and will ensure to comply with and facilitate.
Officer Responsible A/Principal Accounts Officer 24.21 Operating Trust Account Anomalies- Recurring issue The ledger reconciliation statement shall be forwarded to the SAO.

The SAO must ensure that: i. all balances are accurate and adequately supported; ii.
any misallocations or outstanding balances from the previous month have been dealt with.15 We were not able to substantiate the operating trust account balance totalling $99,299 after performing subsequent payment testing for the outstanding operating trust balances as at 31 July 2018.
Table 24.12: Unsubstantiated Balances in Operating Trust Account Programme Social Welfare Ministry of Women Total Closing Balance ($) 74,307 24,992 99,299 In addition, the Ministry was not able to determine the aging of the balances which have been carried forward.

Root Cause/Implication The audit findings indicate that the Operating Trust Account was not reviewed for accuracy and reconciled on a timely basis by staffs responsible.
15 Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation Finance Manual 2013 section 16.3.6 Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation Head 24: Page 20 REPORT OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL OF THE REPUBLIC OF FIJI – 31 JULY 2018 – SOCIAL SERVICES SECTOR Recommendation The Ministry should: investigate and rectify carry forward balances from prior years; and • • ensure that controls and adequate supervision is carried out to avoid such discrepancies from incurring in future.
Agreed Management Action Recommendation is noted and will comply with.

Few have been resolved and pending is yet to be cleared.

Officer Responsible A/Principal Accounts Officer Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation Head 24: Page 21 REPORT OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL OF THE REPUBLIC OF FIJI – 31 JULY 2018 – SOCIAL SERVICES SECTOR Appendix 1 - Mispostings in SEG 3, SEG 4, SEG 5 and SEG 6 Cheque/EFT No.
59643 60449 60252 20566 65569 65567 64068 Date Particulars 30/06/2018 May Bills 31/07/2018 June Payment 31/07/2018 Bills June 2018 31/05/2018 April Bills 2018 31/07/2018 PBX Telephone System 31/07/2018 Commission Charges 03/11/2017 Allowance Payout Posted to allocation SEG 4 SEG 4 SEG 4 SEG 4 SEG 3 SEG 6 SEG 5 Correct allocation SEG 3 SEG 3 SEG 3 SEG 3 SEG 5 SEG 5 SEG 6 Net Effect ($) Amount ($) 2,088 SEG 4 Overstated by 4,673 322 195 2,068 209,252 SEG 3 Overstated by 204,579 23,065 SEG 6 Understated by 944,262 967,327 SEG 5 Overstated by 735,010 Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation Head 24: Page 22 REPORT OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL OF THE REPUBLIC OF FIJI – 31 JULY 2018 – SOCIAL SERVICES SECTOR Appendix 2 - Mispostings within SEG 6 Date Cheque Scheme 1/02/2018 05/04/2018 64493 64821 Social Pension Scheme Social Pension Scheme Child Protection Scheme Disability Scheme Total Amount ($) Should be posted to Incorrectly Posted to Poverty Benefit Scheme Allocation 3,138,710 1-24202-91011-060101 1-24202-91011-060308 3,295,160 1-24202-91011-060101 1-24202-91011-060308 365,263 1-24202-91011-060309 1-24202-91011-060308 145,080 1-24202-91011-060301 1-24202-91011-060308 6,944,213 Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation Head 24: Page 23 REPORT OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL OF THE REPUBLIC OF FIJI – 31 JULY 2018 – SOCIAL SERVICES SECTOR Appendix 3: Lack of audited accounts for grant recipients Grant Recipient Purpose of Grant Counterstroke Fiji Home of Hope Salvation Army Senior Citizens Ba Community Fiji
 Muslim League Global Compassion Medical Services in Pacific Church of Nazarene Fiji Paralympics Committee Fiji Association of the Deaf Operating grant Upgrade of smoke alarm system Operating grant Operating grant Operating grant Operating grant Operating grant Operating grant Operating grant Operating grant Amount Disbursed ($) Year of Last Audited Accounts 13,500 Cannot determine 29,000 2015 20,000 Cannot determine 30,000 Cannot determine 100,000 Cannot determine 112,500 2017 200,000 Cannot determine 12,501 Cannot determine 15,000 Cannot determine 16,325 Cannot determine Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation Head 24: Page 24 REPORT OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL OF THE REPUBLIC OF FIJI – 31 JULY 2018 – SOCIAL SERVICES SECTOR Appendix 4: Lack of internal controls in payments Cheque/EFT No.
18925 Date Particulars Amount ($) Anomalies Noted 070/2/2018 Payment for vehicle repair-EH 415 4,622 No stamp "PAID" on payment voucher and supporting 18922 63880 16078 63881 16694 21990 16603 17240 21606 07/02/2018 Payment for the damages & lost items 3,379 No stamp "PAID" on payment voucher and supporting GP430 documents 05/10/2017 Payment of HFH rental under payments 8,034 Payment voucher was not certified by checking/approving documents officer 06/09/2017 Payment of airfare for awareness training 06/10/2017 Payment of 1000 printed T-shirts for 2,469 Competitive quotes not obtained before making purchases.
15,596 Competitive quotes not obtained before making purchases awareness of Violence Against Children 13/10/2017 Payment of accommodation 23/07/2018 Payment of volunteer cost 09/10/2017 Payment of accommodation 07/11/2017 Payment of (960) PECAN T-shirts 05/07/2018 Payment of building material for housing 771 Invoice not attached to payment voucher 4,640 Evidence of allowance paid to village youths not attached to 2,194 payment voucher Invoice not attached to payment voucher 14,862 Evidence of item received not attached to payment voucher 7,352 Evidence of building work completed not attached to payment assistance voucher Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation Head 24: Page 25 REPORT OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL OF THE REPUBLIC OF FIJI – 31 JULY 2018 – SOCIAL SERVICES SECTOR Head 25 Ministry of Youth and Sports Roles and Responsibilities The Ministry of Youth and Sports is responsible for engaging with Fiji’s young people to help develop skills that help them reach their full potential and enable them to access greater opportunity to better themselves and uplift their communities.
The Ministry carries out work to foster and support community networks and run initiatives that help young people build character, learn valuable life lessons and promote entrepreneurship and innovation.

The Ministry offers training to youths through five Youth Training Centres around the country and through mobile training in rural and urban areas.

The training is run in close cooperation with other Ministries, particularly Agriculture, Fisheries and Forests, and iTaukei Affairs.
The training is aimed at empowering young people to be productive members of the community and equipping them with the knowledge and skills to venture into specific income-earning opportunities.

The Ministry also drives sporting development in Fiji to encourage healthy lifestyle choices among the Fijian people and maintain Fiji’s position as the hub of athletic competition in the Pacific.
The Ministry’s work falls within the framework of a number of existing policies that govern national sporting development.

The Sports Development Unit of the Ministry plays an important role in the promotion and development of sports.

The Ministry will continue to invest in developing and upgrading Fiji’s sporting infrastructure and facilities, particularly in the rural areas.

This includes upgrading Rural Sports Fields in various schools and Rural Sports Complexes in identified regional hubs.
The Ministry will work closely with the National Sports Commission to develop a system that supports and nurtures the development of sportspeople from beginner levels to elite levels.

This includes formulating incentives for corporate bodies to support the development of sports in Fiji.
Table of Contents PART A: FINANCIAL STATEMENTS .................................................................................................. 2 25.1 Audit Opinion ............................................................................................................................ 2 25.2 Statement of Receipts and Expenditure ................................................................................. 2 25.3 Appropriation Statement ......................................................................................................... 3 ASSESSMENT OF FINANCIAL GOVERNANCE ................................................................... 4 PART B: 25.4 Internal Controls ....................................................................................................................... 4 25.5 Submission of FY 2017 - 2018 Draft Agency Financial Statements .......................................... 5 25.6 Quality of draft financial statements by entities ..................................................................... 6 25.7 Timeliness of draft financial statements .................................................................................. 6 25.8 Timeliness of Provision of Management Comments and Signing of Financial Statements .. 6 OTHER SIGNIFICANT MATTERS ........................................................................................ 7 25.9 No Risk Management Framework in Place .............................................................................. 7 25.10 Weakness in Internal Control for Revenue .............................................................................. 8 25.11 Overtime Payment for Established staff sourced from GWE Allocation ............................... 9 25.12 Operating Trust Account Anomalies – Recurring Issue ......................................................... 10 PART C: Ministry of Youth & Sports Head 25: Page 1 REPORT OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL OF THE REPUBLIC OF FIJI – 31 JULY 2018 – SOCIAL SERVICES SECTOR PART A: FINANCIAL STATEMENTS 25.1 Audit Opinion The audit of the 2018 accounts of the Ministry of Youth and Sports resulted in an unqualified audit opinion.
25.2 Statement of Receipts and Expenditure The Ministry collected revenue totalling $98,173 and incurred a total expenditure of $19,885,453 for the year ended 31 July 2018.

Details are provided in Table 25.1.
Table 25.1: Statement of Receipts and Expenditure for 2018 Description State Revenue Agency Revenue Total Revenue Established staff Government wage earners Travel and communications Maintenance & operations Purchase of goods and services Operating grants and transfers Special expenditures Total Operating Expenditure Capital Construction Capital grants and transfers Total Capital Expenditure 31 July 2018 ($) 2,050 96,123 98,173 2,369,297 274,434 318,931 443,942 992,628 11,426,344 1,643,941 17,469,517 9,174 2,210,505 2,219,679 31 July 2017 ($) 1,864 92,654 94,518 1,809,214 261,057 318,623 356,920 1,210,826 6,753,553 1,472,394 12,182,587 --- 7,934,687 7,934,687 Value Added Tax 196,257 202,270 Total Expenditure 19,885,453 20,319,544 Total revenue increased by $3,655 or 3.9% in 2018 compared to previous year due to increase in revenues collected through hire of mattresses, National Youth Dance, Brass Bands and portable tents.
Established staff costs increased by $560,083 or 31% in 2018 compared to 2017 due to the shift of ten staffs payroll budget from project funding to established payroll as provided in the budget for 2017-2018 financial year.

The expenditure for the Purchase of Goods and Service decreased by $218,198 or 18% in 2018 compared to 2017.
The decrease was mainly due to savings identified through cost efficiency and effective expenditure control mechanisms from Youth Conference, National Youth Band, and Rations for Trainees, National Sports day, National Sports policy and other operating funds under SEG 5.

Ministry of Youth & Sports Head 25: Page 2 REPORT OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL OF THE REPUBLIC OF FIJI – 31 JULY 2018 – SOCIAL SERVICES SECTOR Operating Grants and Transfers costs increased by $4,672,791 or 69.2% in 2018 compared to 2017.
The increase was due to increased funding provided for Overseas Sport Tour for Fiji’s National Sporting Team participation in the 2018 Commonwealth Games and Fiji hosting the 2017 Oceania Rugby Sevens Tournament.

Funding was also provided for sports grants for persons with disabilities and the revival of boxing as a qualifying sport.
Special expenditure increased by $171,547 or 11.7% in 2018 compared to 2017 due to funding of unbudgeted expenditures upon Cabinet’s approval to host the 6th Pacific Sports Ministers’ meeting and medal incentive pay-out for 2018 Commonwealth Games.

Capital Grants and Transfers costs decreased by $5,724,182 or 72.1% in 2018 compared to 2017 due to the re-deployment from the Rural Sports Facilities allocation towards the Government’s Home Care Initiative.
25.3 Appropriation Statement The Ministry incurred expenditure totalling $19.89million in 2017-2018 against a revised budget of $22.70million, resulting in a saving of $2.81 million or 12%.

Details of expenditure against the revised budget are provided in Table 25.2.
Table 25.2: Appropriation Statement for 2018 SEG Item Established Staff Government Wage Earners Travel & Communication Maintenance & Operations Purchase of Goods & Services Operating Grant & Transfers Special Expenditure Total Operating Expenditure Capital Construction Capital Grant & Transfer Total Capital Expenditure Value Added Tax Total Expenditure Budget Estimate ($) 2,714,114 339,838 314,150 438,550 1,210,033 Changes ($) (194,491) (2,408) 58,520 116,354 (50,064) Revised Estimate ($) 2,519,623 337,430 372,670 554,904 1,159,969 Actual Expenditure ($) 2,369,297 274,434 318,931 443,942 992,628 Lapsed Appropriation ($) 150,326 62,996 53,739 110,962 167,341 11,445,105 1,796,288 18,258,078 --- 11,445,105 1,858,377 (10,000) 18,248,078 62,089 11,426,344 1,643,941 17,469,517 --- 4,502,549 4,502,549 336,066 23,096,693 10,000 (400,000) (390,000) --- 10,000 4,102,549 4,112,549 336,066 (400,000) 22,696,693 9,174 2,210,505 2,219,679 196,257 19,885,453 18,761 214,436 778,561 826 1,892,044 1,892,870 139,809 2,811,240 Ministry of Youth & Sports Head 25: Page 3 REPORT OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL OF THE REPUBLIC OF FIJI – 31 JULY 2018 – SOCIAL SERVICES SECTOR PART B: ASSESSMENT OF FINANCIAL GOVERNANCE 25.4 Internal Controls During our audits, we assess the design and implementation of controls to ensure that they are suitably designed to prevent, detect and correct material misstatements.
Where audit strategy requires, we also test the operating effectiveness to ensure the internal controls are functioning as designed.

A deficiency occurs when internal controls are unable to prevent, detect or correct errors in the financial statements or where controls are missing.

A significant deficiency is a deficiency that either or alone or in combination with multiple deficiencies may to lead to a material misstatement in the financial statements.

It requires immediate management action.


Internal controls are categorized against the following five components of internal control.

• Control Environment (CE) – is the set of standards, processes and structures that provide the basis for carrying out internal controls across the entity.
These include commitment to integrity and ethical values, independence of management to exercise oversight for the development and performance of internal control, documented structures, reporting lines and appropriate authorities such as delegated levels of authority and responsibilities in the pursuit of the entity’s objectives.

It also includes commitment to attract, develop and retain competent individuals, and holding them accountable for their internal control responsibilities.
Examples of issues which fall under this category are ethical breaches, gaps in internal controls or controls are non-existent, individuals are not held accountable for breaches in control or entities code of ethics, staff recruitment, and training and professional development, performance assessment and succession planning matters.
• Risk Assessment (RA) – involves a dynamic process for identifying and analysing risks to achieve the entity’s objectives, forming a basis for determining how risks should be managed.

Examples of issues which would fall under this category are absence of risk management framework, operational including fraud and enterprise risks not identified, assessed and mitigated and impact of changes in business processes on controls not identified and assessed.
• Control Activities (CA) – these are established by policies and procedures to help ensure that management’s directives to mitigate risks to the achievement of objectives are carried out.

Control activities are performed at all levels of an entity and at various stages within business processes, and over the technology environment.
Examples of issues which would fall under this category are general controls relating to information technology, documentation of procedures which have in-built checks and balances which are aligned to the policies of the entity.

Specific control activities include those relating to authorization, performance reviews, information processing, physical controls, and segregation of duties.
Ministry of Youth & Sports Head 25: Page 4 REPORT OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL OF THE REPUBLIC OF FIJI – 31 JULY 2018 – SOCIAL SERVICES SECTOR • Information and Communication Control (IC) – information is necessary for the entity to carry out internal control responsibilities in support of achievement of its objectives.

Communication occurs both internally and externally and provides the entity with the information needed to carry out day-to-day controls.
Communication enables personnel to understand internal control responsibilities and their importance for the achievement of objectives.

Examples of issues which would fall under this category are reporting to boards and line ministries of entities on matters relating to internal controls • Monitoring Activities (MA) – on-going evaluations, separate evaluations or some combination of the two are used to ascertain whether controls are present and functioning.
Findings are evaluated and deficiencies are communicated in a timely manner.

Examples of issues which would fall under this category are self-assessment by entities to determine whether internal controls are present and function.

This may include the establishment of independent internal audit functions within entities which would assist in identifying any gaps in controls.
A summary of assessment of key controls based on our audit was as follows: Control Environment Risk Assessment Control Activities    Information & Communication Control  Monitoring Activities  In view of the above, we have assessed the internal controls of the Ministry as: Rating Internal control assessment  Generally effective Deficiencies identified in internal controls 25.5 Submission of FY 2017 - 2018 Draft Agency Financial Statements On 12 June 2018, Permanent Secretary for Economy issued Circular No.
03/2018 to Permanent Secretaries, Heads of Departments, High Commissioners and Ambassadors in Fiji Overseas Missions in which procedures for closing of 2018 accounts and times were detailed.

The final day for closing the 2018 accounts was 29 August 2018.
The key focus areas in the circular were: • Closing date for journal adjustments by 10 August 2018 • Clearance of Inter-departmental clearance accounts by 3 August 2018 • Monitoring of unpresented cheques by 29 August 2018 • Clearance of stale cheques by 22 August 2018 • Annual Board of Survey on Drawings Account cheques by 22 August 2018 • Retirement of annual imprests by 20 July 2018 • Cancellation of unprocessed purchase orders by 27 July 2018 • Processing of payments and virements by 13 August 2018 • Completion of reconciliations by 29 August 2018 Ministry of Youth & Sports Head 25: Page 5 REPORT OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL OF THE REPUBLIC OF FIJI – 31 JULY 2018 – SOCIAL SERVICES SECTOR When ministries and departments achieve the key focus areas highlighted by the Permanent Secretary for Economy by the given dates, they are more likely to prepare accurate and timely draft financial statements for audit.
Based on information received, we have assessed the year-end close process as: Rating  Generally effective Year-end close process assessment 8 of 9 key processes completed within two weeks of due date 25.6 Quality of draft financial statements by entities The extent of audit adjustments made to draft financial statements indicates the effectiveness of an entity’s internal review processes before the accounts are submitted for audit.
We assessed the quality of financial statements by the impact these adjustments had on the operating results or net assets of the entity subject to out audit.
Our assessment for the Ministry was: Rating  Generally effective Adjustments on operating results were less than one percent Quality of draft financial statements assessment 25.7 Timeliness of draft financial statements To assess the timeliness of acceptable draft financial statements, we have compared the date the draft financial statements were due and the date it was received.
Accordingly, we have assessed timeliness as: Rating  Generally effective Timeliness of draft financial statements assessment Acceptable draft financial statements received on or before 31 October 2018 25.8 Timeliness of Provision of Management Comments and Signing of Financial Statements To assess the timeliness of provision of management comments and signing of financial statements, we have compared the date the draft management letter and audited financial statements were issued to entity and the date management comments and signed accounts were received.
Accordingly, we have assessed timeliness as: Rating  Effective Rating  Effective Timeliness of Management Comments Received Within 14 days from issue of Draft Management Letter Timeliness of Signed Financial Statements Received Signed financial statements received within 15 days Ministry of Youth & Sports Head 25: Page 6 REPORT OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL OF THE REPUBLIC OF FIJI – 31 JULY 2018 – SOCIAL SERVICES SECTOR PART C: OTHER SIGNIFICANT MATTERS The Audit Act 1969 requires, amongst other things, that the Auditor-General must report on other significant matters which the Auditor-General wishes to bring to the attention of Parliament.
Other significant matters highlighted in this report, include control weaknesses which could cause or is causing severe disruption to the process or on the ability of an auditee to achieve process objectives and comply with relevant legislation.

It is likely that these issues may have an impact on the operations of the Ministry in future, if necessary action is not taken to address them.
It is important to note that the deficiencies detailed in this report were identified during our audit and may have been subsequently resolved by the Ministry.

These have been included in this report as they impacted on the overall system of control of the Ministry as at 31 July 2018.
25.9 No Risk Management Framework in Place It is a good practice to establish a risk management framework to have the Ministry’s management and respective Divisional Heads to jointly plan, implement, monitor and take action on evolving risks affecting the Ministry.

Risk management framework would provide a platform to identify various risks affecting the Ministry, management of the risk, develop appropriate internal control to mitigate the risks and continuous monitoring risks.
The mechanism to mitigate risks could include policies, procedures, training and awareness.

Review of the Ministry’s Corporate Governance revealed that there is no risk management framework in place.
As a result, the Ministry does not have written policies, procedures and guidelines to manage the following risks associated with the following: Fraud control and anti-corruption • • Disaster recovery and business continuity ; and • Disaster recovery plan Root Cause/Implication The Ministry may not be able to effectively identify risks and appropriately manage them on a timely manner.
Recommendations The Ministry should: • work towards establishing a governance and accountability function that support the operations of the Ministry by providing for financial and operational risk management; following the establishment of the governance and accountability function, a risk management framework should be developed and continuously used; and consider developing a disaster recovery plan.
• • Ministry of Youth & Sports Head 25: Page 7 REPORT OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL OF THE REPUBLIC OF FIJI – 31 JULY 2018 – SOCIAL SERVICES SECTOR Agreed Management Action The Ministry concurs with the audit findings that no specific risk management framework is in place.

The Ministry has developed a risk register, few policies related to effective governance and anti-corruption policy as way forward will further develop relevant policies to address the issue of disaster recovery and business continuity.
Officer Responsible Corporate/ Policy Section and Director for Youth and Sports.

25.10 Weakness in Internal Control for Revenue An effective and cost effective system of internal control will ensure that wastage of funds, over expenditure and abuse of system, processes and resources do not occur.
The Senior Coordinator Finance is responsible for the effective design and operation of internal control of the agency.1 Review of internal controls relating to revenue noted the following weaknesses for the two training centres: Nasau Training Centre • An approved price list was not submitted for the sale of livestock.

• Lack of documentation available to trace the production records to sales for the year ended 31 July 2018.

• Invoices were not issued for credit sales.


Valelevu Training Centre • Miscellaneous revenue includes income from hire of mattresses, national youth dance, brass bands and portable tents was collected from the Valelevu Training Centre totalling $47,812 were not budgeted for in the 2017-2018 budget estimates.

Root Cause/Implication There is no approved standard operating procedure in place to guide the commercial operation of the Nasau Training Centre.
As a result, it was not possible to ascertain on the completeness of revenue collected from sale of farm produce.
Recommendations The Ministry should: • develop and obtain approval for Standard Operating Procedures for revenue collection for the training centres; • maintain an approved price list for the sale of farm produce and livestock; • maintain a debtors register for credit sales; 1 Ministry of Youth & Sports Finance Manual 2017 Part 16 – Section 16.1.1 Ministry of Youth & Sports Head 25: Page 8 REPORT OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL OF THE REPUBLIC OF FIJI – 31 JULY 2018 – SOCIAL SERVICES SECTOR • provide adequate training to staff at Nasau Training Centre on the proper management of accounting records; and • budget for all revenue to be collected by the Ministry.
Agreed Management Action Nasau Training Centre a) Standard operating procedures for revenue collection at Nasau Training Centre from farm and livestock sales are drafted and implemented, the SOP will be reviewed and finalised by 31 May 2019.

The Ministry will ensure a revised price list is established for sale from farm produce and livestock.

The Ministry will not sell goods on credit and will further explore potential markets for sale of excess farm produce.
Monthly record keeping on production, stock and sales is implemented to ensure proper records are maintained for livestock and farm.

b) Adequate training is provided to staffs of Nasau Training Centre for proper management of records.

Valelevu Training Centre The Ministry will further liaise with the Ministry of Economy to regularise and budget the revenue collection from Valelevu Youth Training Centre.
Officer Responsible Coordinator Nasau Youth Training Centre / Divisional Manager Western /Senior Coordinator Finance / Coordinator Finance / Clerical Officer Nasau Youth Training Centre 25.11 Overtime Payment for Established staff sourced from GWE2 Allocation The proper management of expenditure is fundamental to ensuring value-for-money in delivering services to the community.
As well, having cost effective internal controls within the purchasing and payments system plays an important part in ensuring that waste of funds, over-expenditures and corruption do not occur.3 We noted that thirty one (31) established staff were paid overtime totalling $14,470 from the Government Wage Earners allocation.

This is contrary to the nature of the account.


Root Cause/Implication We noted that funds to accommodate the payment of overtime for staff were budgeted in the Government Wage Earners account allocation (SEG 2).

Recommendation The Ministry should ensure overtime payment for established staffs is paid from the correct allocation.
2 Government Wage Earners 3 Ministry of Youth & Sports Finance Manual 2017, Part 2 Ministry of Youth & Sports Head 25: Page 9 REPORT OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL OF THE REPUBLIC OF FIJI – 31 JULY 2018 – SOCIAL SERVICES SECTOR Agreed Management Action The Ministry concurs with the audit findings, that overtime payment for established staffs were sourced from programme 1 , Activity 1 , SEG 2 – Overtime allocation (1-25101-25101-020401) as fund was requested through the budget submission for established officers in the 2017-2018 budget.
Furthermore, noting the circumstances of unavoidable overtime for established staffs responsible for critical areas towards Ministry’s service delivery, working overtime by established staffs will be an on-going activity.

Therefore, to ensure correct SEG posting, the Ministry through its budget submission with consult Ministry of Economy Budget Division and ensuring payment of established staffs overtime is reflected within SEG 1.

Officer Responsible Senior Coordinator Finance and Coordinator Finance.
25.12 Operating Trust Account Anomalies – Recurring Issue Within 3 days of receiving the monthly general ledger reports from the Ministry of Economy (FMIS), the Assistant Coordinator Finance (Ledger) shall reconcile the ledger balances to the general ledger reports and prepare a ledger reconciliation statement.
Any errors or misallocations must be immediately adjusted by way of journal vouchers.4 We noted that a sum of $25,495 has been carried forward from prior years for which is yet to be rectified by the Ministry.

Root Cause/Implication The findings indicate that the Operating Trust Account were not reconciled and reviewed for the prior year’s balances.
Recommendations The Ministry should: investigate and rectify carry forward balances from prior years; and • • ensure that controls and adequate supervision is carried out to avoid such discrepancies from incurring in future.
Agreed Management Action We concur on the pending unresolved audit issue from Financial Year 2016-2017, however since this issue had emanated from the previous years (2011-2015) , it took a bit of time for the Ministry to verify records and substantiate the balances in the Operating Trust fund balance, as the Ministry had also being involved in rectifying a similar issue with its Accountable Advance Allocation from 2011-2016, which was rectified and adjusted during the closing of accounts for 2016-2017 financial year.
The Ministry has submitted the relevant details of the balances to the Ministry of Economy and further awaits the Ministry of Economy to advice and complete the necessary adjustments.

Officer Responsible Senior Coordinator Finance / Assistant Coordinator Finance (Ledgers) 4 Ministry of Youth & Sports Finance Manual 2017- Section 15.3.4 & 15.3.5 Ministry of Youth & Sports Head 25: Page 10 www.oag.gov.fj