Auditor General, Mr.Gamini Herath submitted his annual report for 2020 to the Speaker of the National Assembly, Hon.Roger Mancienne, as required under Article 158 of the Constitution. The Speaker is required to table the report in the National Assembly as per Section 21 (1) of the Auditor General Act, 2010.
The report bring out the findings arising from the audit of government accounts and various Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) undertaken during the previous audit cycle. In addition, included in the report is a special report on the audit of expenditure incurred by the Ministry of Health on the measures taken to prevent the spread of and minimize the impact of Covid-19 pandemic during 2020.
This is the fifth consecutive year for which the report has been submitted before the end of December statutory deadline. However, Auditor General feels that the report could have submitted little earlier had it not been for the impact of COVID-19 situation.
Read more: Auditor General’s Report for 2020 submitted to the Speaker
TODAY
In Seychelles
Saturday 28 August, 2021
Auditor-General Mr. Herath formerly presents report to President Ramkalawan
Read more: Auditor General presents WBSAIII Report to the President
State House
President Ramkalawan commends to the Auditor General’s office on their achievements
28 August 2021 | Legal Affairs
President Wavel Ramkalawan yesterday formally received the ranking report issued by the World Bank whereby Seychelles has been ranked the highest in the world alongside South Africa, among 118 countries. The Report was presented to the President by the Auditor General, Mr Gamini Herath.
Read more: President Ramkalawan commends to the Auditor General’s office on their achievements
10 August 2021 |State House
President Wavel Ramkalawan has personally conveyed his congratulations and that of the people of the Republic of Seychelles to the Office of the Auditor General (OAG) upon being ranked the highest in the world alongside South Africa, among 118 countries. This announcement was made by the Supreme Audit Institutions Independence Index – 2021 Global Synthesis Report, launched on 27th July 2021 by the World Bank.
Read more: President Ramkalawan sends congratulatory message to the Office of the Auditor General
Office of the Auditor General (OAG) of Seychelles and the National Audit Office (CNAO) of the People’s Republic of China signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for improving bilateral co-operation between the two supreme audit institutions (SAI) in a more formal and organized manner.
CNAO is one of the largest SAIs in the world and a leader in several areas of public sector auditing with a full-fledged training and professional development center offering international courses.
The MoU with CNAO will pave the way for the two SAIs to co-operate in advancing the public sector auditing in the respective countries, particularly, through:
- exchange of information, experiences and best practices on public sector auditing procedure and methodology including audit realization issues through trainings and study visits; and
- training for the improvement of professional standards of audit personnel.
As per a request made by the FPAC of the 6th Assembly, the OAG looked into the various land deals and transactions between the government and the political party presently known as United Seychelles.
The resulting report was submitted to the National Assembly and the Cabinet office in January 2021.
Audit found that, in 1993, at the dawn of the Third Republic, the Government of Seychelles (Government) transitioned from a one party state to a multiparty system of governance.
At the time, a delinking process took place to separate the SPPF (now United Seychelles), which was at that time the ruling political party from the government.
The delinking process involved the creation of a committee chaired by the Director of Lands at that time. The committee was tasked to carefully look at the propositions made by SPPF for the purchase or lease of various premises and sites for its offices.
Read more: Report on various land deals and transactions between GOS and the political party US
Auditor General, Mr.Gamini Herath submitted his annual report for 2019 to the Speaker of the National Assembly, Hon.Roger Mancienne, as required under Article 158 of the Constitution.
The report bring out the findings arising from the audit of government accounts for 2019 and various Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) undertaken during the previous audit cycle.
This is the fourth consecutive year for which the report has been submitted before the end of December statutory deadline. However, Auditor General feels that the report could have submitted little earlier had it not been for the impact of COVID-19 situation.
The activity report and audited financial statements of OAG for 2019 was also submitted to the Speaker under Section 26 of the Auditor General Act. This report was due by the end of June, however, delayed due to the COVID-19 situation which impacted not only on the operations of OAG but also the external auditing of the OAG.
Read more: Report of the Auditor General for 2019 submitted to the Speaker
SAI Seychelles (OAG) in INTOSAI WGPD
INTOSAI Working Group on Public Debt met on 26th and 27th August 2020 to discuss on the 2020 theme ‘implementation of SDGs: exploring the role of public debt auditors in the light of COVID-19.
SAI Seychelles participated in the meeting for the first time since becoming a full member of the WG in late 2019.
Enriching the participants’ knowledge and understanding of the issues relating challenges and opportunities in the audit of public debt, the representatives from UNTAD, World Bank, SAI China, SAI Indonesia and IDI made excellent presentations.
In view of the large number of member SAIs in the WG (some 37), the meeting was held in two days targeting two groups, of which OAG was in the first group on the 26th.
Read more: OAG participates in INTOSAI WGPD virtual annual meeting
COMMISSION OF INQUIRY (INTERIM) REPORT SUBMITTED TO THE PRESIDENT OF REPULBIC
Auditor General, Mr Gamini Herath, who also served as Chairman on the commission of inquiry into the disposal of assets of COSPROH, submitted an interim report on 24.06.2020 to H.E. President of the Republic of Seychelles. The report was submitted under Section 8 of the Commissions of Inquiry Act.
The commission of inquiry was set up in August 2018, based on a resolution passed in the National Assembly, to look into the disposal of immovable properties of the former state company ‘Compagine Seychelloise de Promotion Hoteliere’, better known as COSPROH.
Read more: COMMISSION OF INQUIRY (INTERIM) REPORT SUBMITTED TO THE PRESIDENT OF REPULBIC
Performance Audit report
Management of the Fuel Incentive Scheme
Seychelles Fishing Authority
The Office of the Auditor General (OAG) has laid its 9th performance audit report before the National Assembly in February 2020. The report examines the effectiveness of the Fuel Incentive Scheme as operated by the Seychelles Fishing Authority (SFA) for the period January 2015 to August 2019.
Since its initiation in 1991, the FIS has been under the management of SFA with the objective to reduce the operating costs of boat owners involved in commercial fishing activities and to improve the viability and profitability of their fishing operations. Under the scheme, boat owners are able to receive 100 percent Excise Tax exemption on the amount of fuel consumed by their vessels during their fishing operations. Presently, the commercial boat owners involved in Artisanal, Semi-industrial, Dropline and Sea Cucumber fishing activities are eligible to benefit from the scheme.