In implementing the UNDP Local Governance Strengthening Project (LGSP) the Bureau of Domestic Affairs, the Ministry of State, through Project partnership efforts of the Office of the Palau Public Auditor, held a three-day review session on the “Uniform Rules and Regulations of Financial Accountability and Financial Audit for State Governments of the Republic of Palau” and “Palau State Government Standard Operating Procedures” with the five pilot states namely Aimeliik State, Hatohobei State, Kayangel State, Melekeok State and Ngeremlengui State.
The five pilot states sent their key finance representatives handling the finance/accounting from the Office of the Governors, Legislatures and PAN. The three-day review session entailed step by step review of the draft “Palau State Government Standard Operating Procedures” led by the Public Auditor Satrunino Tewid. State government’s key finance representatives contributed to the review of the SOP to ensure the draft SOP account to the uniqueness of each state and to voice comments from their respective state governments regarding the document. The three-day review exercise was both informative and productive. Following this three-day review session, the Bureau of Domestic Affairs along with the Public Auditor will be scheduling one on one review sessions with the state governments to further tailor the draft SOP to accommodate the different revenue generations and payment fees schedules for each states.
The Public Auditor mentioned throughout the training that it is imperative that the state governments be up to par with the public financial management standards that will be set in place for the state governments to comply with and for the Office of the Palau Public Auditor to work with to ensure that public funds are accounted for and work practices are indeed transparent .The Ministry of State highly regards the review exercise to be both beneficial and invaluable for improving the state government’s public finance management practices thus highly encourage all state governments adherence to the finalized standard operating procedures in the aims of improving the state government’s human resources capacities and standardize operations for all the 16 States of our Republic.
Auditor Tewid stated that “accountability and transparency is only as effective as the system you build to support it.
The Local Governance Strengthening Project builds the foundation to implementing the system that supports an effective process of accountability and transparency. Accountability and transparency promotes good governance and supports the use of public resources to serve the public and reporting results”. (PR)