Audit evokes memories

The leaked Auditor’s report has reignited the debate over the spending of the Minister of Finance, Faumuina Tiatia Liuga.

This time, his tenure as the Chairman of the Samoa Land Corporation (SLC) has come under scrutiny from the leader of the Opposition, Palusalue Fa’apo II.

Speaking to the Weekend Observer, Palusalue questioned the amount of money “wasted” by Faumuina, whose time at the SLC in 2009 and 2010 saw overspending of more than $2 million tala.

Palusalue raised questions in response to the Report of the Controller and Chief Auditor to the Legislative Assembly 2009-2010, which was published in the Sunday Samoan.

In the report, Chief Auditor, Fuimaono Camillo Afele warned the Ministry of Finance in 2007 to address its bookkeeping practices, as failure to do so would be “disastrous to the security and protection of public finances”.

At the time when the audit was conducted, Papali’itele Niko Lee Hang was the Minister of Finance.

Faumuina was the Chairman of the Samoa Land Corporation.

Palusalue said the Audit report in question brought back sad memories.

“It is a sad situation – it all comes down to the Samoa Land Corporation (SLC) being exposed by the Auditor’s Report,” said Palusalue.

“He (Faumuina) was the Chairman (of the SLC).”

As well as more than $2 million in overspending, Samoa Land Corporation revenues fell short by $11 million, with staff buying Corporation land at 60per cent of market values.

Palusalue said while he cannot comment on the Parliamentary Committee’s response to the report as it is still being discussed; he questions the spending of Faumuina.

Drawing on examples such as the $1.7 million Siva Afi court case, the $600,000 refurbishment of Faumuina’s office in the SNPF Plaza, the $1.8 million spent on the market design and most recently the court-awarded damages to Toluono Feti Toluono amounting to about half a million tala.

Palusalue says this is a lot of money to be wasted.

“So since I can’t comment on that investigation and the findings of the Parliamentary Committee, I feel he is responsible for all this money wasting and that is a lot of money for Samoa, all these discrepancies.

“That is why the Government is asking for loans from overseas because of these wasted amounts of money by the Government and then the people pay for all these short fallings of finance.”

In regards to the latest court case involving Government monies, Palusalue said the initial award of $400,000 made to former Member of Parliament, Toluono upheld by the Supreme Court, could end up being closer to $1,000,000 with the 12 per cent interest accrual dating back to September 2007.

The dispute was in relation to the cost for the construction of a Sports Gymnasium used for the 2007 South Pacific Games in Samoa.

Toluono, who is the Managing Director of Afolau Construction, took the matter to Court after the former SPGA CEO, Fonoti Etuale Ioane and the Government failed to pay the outstanding funds.

“This is a lot of money being wasted by the Government and this Minister of Finance, he is responsible for this contract and those variations,” said Palusalue.

“That is a lot of money being wasted.”

While Palusalue could not comment on the Parliamentary Committee currently investigating the Auditor’s Report, he said he would comment on the report itself.

“In my own opinion the Auditor’s report has been tabled in Parliament and as soon as it has been tabled then that is public information,” he said.

“The report itself has a lot of things in it in terms of where the Government has failed, especially in terms of the SOEs (State Owned Enterprises) and the collection of revenue,” he said.

“That is why I specifically said in Parliament in the last budget debate that we feel that the Government is not collecting all the revenues that would cut the loans and the debt.

“There is (a different) Parliamentary Committee sitting on this issue of the revenue being collected, because one of our members accused the Ministry of Revenue of not collecting all the money.

“So I believe in terms of the report, I support especially in the case of the SLC, there are millions and millions of dollars being used unnecessarily.

“But I believe the Auditor is doing the job that he is supposed to do and report back to Parliament for the Members to have knowledge of what is going on within the Ministries and also the SOEs.”

It was not possible to immediately get comments from Faumuina yesterday.