Cultural performers strutting their stuff at the opening ceremony of the 17th Pacific Games in Solomon Islands. Photo: RNZ Pacific / Junior Maealasia
The Pacific Games Council (PGC) is hopeful that the audit of the 2023 Pacific Games spending will be completed soon.
Chief executive Andrew Minogue said that the PGC expects audit reports to be tabled within 12 months after a Pacific Games is completed.
While not commenting on the current delay in the Honiara Games audit report, Minogue said the Council remains hopeful things will be sorted soon.
"Based on the experience with previous hosts, we normally expect the financial audit to take about 12 months," he told RNZ Pacific on Tuesday.
"Given that the [Honiara] Games finished just prior to Christmas 2023 (where things naturally slow down with holidays), we would expect the audit to be wrapping up very soon."
However, how soon is a question many in the Solomon Islands are currently asking, with the Office of the Auditor General, David Dennis, telling local media that they are not happy with the delays.
The delay, as reported by both the Solomon Star and In-depth Solomons, is with the National Hosting Authority (NHA), which is not providing audit documentation to the auditors.
NHA is the body that the Solomon Islands government tasked to lead the preparations and maangement of the Games. It was chaired by Dr Jimmie Rodgers, the secretary to the Prime Minister Manasseh Sagavere at the time.
In-depth Solomons reported that Dennis confirmed that the NHA has yet to supply financial statements that support the expenses.
Dennis said the financial statement audits cover the calendar periods from 2019 to 2024, and the special procurement audit examines the procurement practices of NHA.
He explained that, during their audience with Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele, the NHA provided an overview of progress to date and likely timelines for the delivery of audit reports.
He said the audits are expected to be reported in the first quarter of 2025, subject to the timely receipt of required documentation.
"Challenges in NHA providing requested documentation continue to delay the timely completion of these audits.
"To date proper documentation to support the validity of actions and transactions for certain major procurements had not yet been provided and remains a concern.
"Updates to the likely completion dates for the remaining financial audits covering calendar periods 2022-2024 will be shared at a later date," Dennis said.
Solomon Islands opposition leader Matthew Wale has joined the call for the NHA to come clean.
In a statement, Wale said millions of taxpayer and donor funds were used and that they need to be accounted for.
"I have heard that the audit team has been obstructed and delayed deliberately," he said.
"There were even allegations of the destruction of documents presumably to avoid auditors seeing them. These are very serious allegations indeed."
Dennis and KPMG partners Steve Nutley and Anare Manulevu updated Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele on the status of the audits last week.
Wale said he wants Manele to order the NHA to comply with the audit needs.
