The Ministry of Lands and Mineral Resources has created a template to assist landowning units in preparing their financial statements for audit purposes. This announcement was made during the review of the 2022 Audit Report on the Economic Sector on Thursday, September 12, by the Ministry’s permanent secretary, Raijeli Taga.
Taga noted that extensive training sessions had been conducted on a one-on-one basis with the landowning units, following recommendations from the Auditor-General’s Office to ensure transparency and good governance.
She explained that the ministry, in collaboration with the Auditor-General’s team, developed the template to assist landowning units in preparing their Audit Financial Statements (AFS) and provided comprehensive training to raise awareness.
In 2023, the team consulted with 14 landowning units through four face-to-face sessions and 10 via email. However, Taga acknowledged challenges in reaching landowners due to their daytime availability, often requiring special appointments for combined training sessions.
As of this year, the team has engaged with 10 landowning units through email and phone communications regarding the new template needed for reporting their trust fund accounts. Taga emphasized the importance of continuing in-person awareness sessions and plans to hold a workshop for trustees in the second quarter, with a budget of $8,000 allocated for this purpose.
Moreover, discussions are ongoing regarding amendments to the Land Use Act, which would eliminate the requirement for annual financial statement submissions by trustees, replacing it with an annual trustees’ workshop. This change aims to better monitor the adherence of lease payments to the deed of trust as guided by the Auditor-General’s Office.