The Ministry of Lands and Mineral Resources has introduced a new 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 held on Thursday. Permanent Secretary Raijeli Taga stated that the ministry has provided comprehensive, one-on-one training to the landowning units.
Taga affirmed their commitment to improving governance and transparency, noting that the ministry has taken into account the recommendations from the Auditor-General’s Office. She explained that extensive training sessions have been conducted with landowning units, collaborating closely with the auditor general’s team to create the template for audit financial statements.
In 2023, the ministry engaged with 14 landowning units through four face-to-face sessions and 10 via email correspondence. Taga mentioned the challenges in coordinating training with landowners due to their daytime commitments, often necessitating special appointments to facilitate group training.
For the upcoming year, the ministry plans to continue consulting with landowning units through both email and phone communication. This effort will focus on educating them about the new template required for their trust fund accounts.
The ministry has outlined a forward strategy that includes ongoing face-to-face awareness sessions and visits to the land-owning units, as well as conducting a trustees’ workshop in the second quarter, supported by an allocated budget of $8,000. Additionally, the ministry is working on amending the Land Use Act to remove the requirement for trustees to submit annual financial statements, replacing it with an annual trustees’ workshop while ensuring compliance with the deed of trust.
These initiatives stem from ongoing consultations with the Auditor-General’s Office, which have guided the development of the current template in use.