Effective Reporting
The Auditor General is expected to provide timely and professionally competent audit reports on all financial statements of public sector entities. Additionally, with the support of the Office of the Auditor General (OAG), the Auditor General is also expected to produce reliable and persuasive reports on the performance of public sector activities that aim to generate significant improvements in public sector administration.
Audit Reports
The primary output of the Office of the Auditor General (OAG) is audit reports – to the National Parliament, the nine Provincial Assemblies, the Honiara City Council and the various Boards of State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) and Statutory Authorities (SAs).
The Office also produces Special Audit Reports which are provided to the requesting government agencies when it is believed that the topic is of importance for the general governance of the Solomon Islands Government (SIG) or in the public interest. In addition, the OAG also undertakes efficiency audits of government programs or operations (known as Performance Audits) which are also reported to the National Parliament.
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Independence and scope of scrutiny of government accounts and operations
To ensure the reports are credible and useful it is important that the Auditor General is independent of the Government he or she audits and has the power to access all records and information needed. In the Solomon Islands, the mandate is provided to the Auditor-General under the pdfSI Constitution 1978(437 KB) and pdfPublic Finance and Audit Act (Cap 120)(375 KB).
Section 108 (5) of the Constitution provides a guarantee of this independence while the Public Finance and Audit Act provides the extent of the Auditor General’s scrutiny of government accounts and operations.
Tabling of Reports
Reports of audits conducted by the Auditor General on all levels of Government are tabled in the National Parliament, Provincial Assemblies, the Honiara City Council and the Boards of State Owned Enterprises and Statutory Bodies. Eventually the results of all these reports are tabled in the National Parliament in the Auditor General’s Annual Reports where they become available for public scrutiny.
These reports are submitted to the Parliament for its information and debate – and to potentially trigger and encourage positive changes in the way audited ministries, provincial governments and government agencies manage their programs, people and properties.
The Auditor General is also the Secretary to the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) which scrutinises the National Budgets and the Auditor General’s reports before they are debated in the Parliament.
Find out more about the relationship between the Auditor General, the OAG and the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
