Minister for Local Government, Premila Kumar says she will be answering in parliament in relation to revelation in the 2018/2019 Auditor General's Report on Municipal Councils that audits for 11 municipal councils are in backlog and 44 financial statements are yet to be received from various municipal councils.
The Auditor-General says due to significant delays in the submission of draft financial statements for audit, the risk of fraud being undetected is very high.
When questioned why the councils audits are in backlog and financial statements are not being provided, Kumar says they have submitted a large number of annual reports in the last few weeks.
She says Rakiraki Town Council has submitted its annual reports till 2018 while some municipal councils have submitted reports till 2014 and 2010 because annual reports were not submitted from 2005 as there was no parliament for some years.
Kumar says they are now catching up and ensuring all annual reports are up to date.
Kumar has also refused to make any comments where the Auditor General has said the Local Government Ministry should investigate whether there was a conflict of interest when a contractor who gave the Rakiraki Town Council over $100,000 to pay off its debts was later awarded the $5.2 million Rakiraki Market construction contract.
The Minister says she needs time to conduct her own investigations.
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