POST Fiji had to write off $40,000 of staff advance which was given to previous staff members carried forward in the financial books for the past 12 to 15 years.
This was according to the organisation’s head of finance, Raiyaz Ahmed, during their submission to the parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Accounts on the 2016/2017 Audit Report on Government Commercial Companies and Commercial Statutory Authorities in Suva last week.
“The staff advance, salary account under review was a carried forward balances from prior years,” he said.
“It was a practice in the past whereby staff were entitled for advance from the organisation and recovered from salaries.
“However, this arrangement has been ceased and there is no longer any facility as such.”
He said because the balances were very old and record-keeping was weak, there was also no record for the names of the staff members who had taken advances.
“These balances have been written off in the subsequent year.
“The only advance account that the organisation currently has is tour advance, which is an accountable advance provided for business purposes.
“New policies and processes have been developed and contained in the finance policy in regards to any advances from the organisation and its recovery process,” he said.
Mr Ahmed added the reconciliation for such accounts were now prepared on a timely basis.
He said for the $40,000 staff advance, none of the staff members were with the organisation.
On the other hand, for the other staff advances such as the accountable advance and the tour advance, the staff members were with the company and the recovery process and policies were already in place.
He said reconciliation was being carried out on a monthly basis.
“The issue over here is the management has recommended or the initial recommendation was that monthly reconciliation would be performed in relation to the other accounts.
“The $40,000 we are talking about and the auditor-general would vouch for it, the balance was stagnant for x number of years, there was no movement.”
He said the likelihood of recovery to that account was nil, that was why they had proposed to the board to write it off.
Post Fiji CEO Dr Anirudha Bansod said the organisation should not lose money on the account of any staff advances.
“I also believe there are instances (where) you need to look after your staff and in case of emergency, accident or family losses,” he added.
According to Dr Bansod, through his past experiences they would look at each case on an individual basis, taking into account the person’s provident fund and salary to mitigate any risks.
He said he was not aware of what had happened in the past at Post Fiji, but he was going to take the recommendations of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts to address this issue.
