The Public Accounts Committee is urging Cabinet Ministers to take action and work with their respective ministries and agencies to submit their report to Parliament.

Teokotai Herman, the chair of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), highlighted this in the Committee’s report for 2022-2023 financial year and others that were submitted to Parliament over a week ago.

The reports focused on the performance of government entities and review of investigations.

Herman acknowledged the Deputy Prime Minister Albert Nicholas and Minister for Culture George “Maggie” Angene for providing evidence in relation to the Ministry of Cultural Development investigation report.

However, he stated that it was disappointing to report to Parliament that the reports from government entities on their spending of public funds and performance did not show significant improvement compared to their previous reports.

The PAC report showed that only 13 out of 59 government entities, representing only 22 per cent, submitted their 2022-2023 performance reports. Forty-six (46) out of 59, which is 78 per cent of government entities, are not meeting their reporting obligations.

“It is also concerning that the most recent audited Cook Islands Government financial statements are for the 2018-2019 financial year.”

Herman reiterated the responsibilities of government heads and executive officers and the importance of their reporting obligations to Parliament.

He said that PAC was responsible for scrutinising the spending of public money and ministry performance, but they couldn’t carry out their work to hold government entities accountable if there were no reports to review.

Herman further added that additional resources and funding were needed for PAC to carry out their work.

According to the PAC report, nine government entities submitted their 2022-2023 audited financial statements to Parliament, and it was concerning that most recent audited Cook Islands government financial statements are for the year 2018-2019.

PAC states: “In most annual performance reports, with the exception of Cook Islands Tourism and National Environment Services, it was not clear whether the funds appropriated by Parliament were spent in accordance with the annual Business Plans submitted by the government entities.”

PAC said that the shortage of staff, challenges around retention and the difficulty to recruit technical staff was a common theme faced by the ministries and it was important to prioritise and manage this issue.