Unidentified land sales deposits totaling $427,456 are still sitting in the Savusavu Town Council’s financial statements as current liabilities since 2009.
Chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee Ashneel Sudhakar says the council has no documents to identify who paid the land sales deposits around 1985.
He adds that the council cannot identify which land was allocated for sale.
Sudhakar questioned the Special Administrator for Savusavu Town Council Vijay Chand in the Public Accounts Committee meeting today about the unidentified land sales deposits.
Sudhakar says that in those days the Council was selling some land and taking deposits for purchases.
He then asked if there were any receipts to show who paid the deposits to the council.
Chand says that he does not think they have any evidence.
However, he states that they had placed public advertisements in the papers on June 7th 2013, saying that any person who had deposited money with the council for purchases of land to come back with proper documents and request for deposits.
He says no one came forward.
Senior Accounts Officer for the Ministry of Local Government Alipate Mataivilia says they still do not have those documents in place to substantiate this amount.
He adds that they will discuss with the Office of the Auditor General and possibly seek legal opinion on this before doing the write-off.
Director of Audit from the Office of the Auditor General, Dineshwar Prasad says there isn’t sufficient cash with the council to actually pay out the $427,456 if all the claims do come through to the Savusavu Town Council for payments.
The Public Accounts Committee will include the recommendations in its report.
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