The public will soon have access to the audited accounts of all political parties in the country, says the Registrar of Political Parties Mohammed Saneem.
He said this in a statement where he gave the National Federation Party until next Wednesday to provide him with receipt books for 2016.
He also said the party had 30 days as of yesterday to furnish him with its audited accounts for 2018 as required under Section 26 of the Political Parties (Registration, Conduct, Funding & Disclosures) Act, 2013.
Mr Saneem said once issues he had with the NFP were dealt with, he would proceed to verify the accounts of all political parties. Once the verification exercise for all parties were completed, “the entire set of accounts would be published in the gazette”.
He also said he had received notification from NFP that it had appointed a Fiji Institute of Accountants recognised auditor to audit its 2018 accounts.
Mr Saneem said upon receiving confirmation of the independent auditor, he had requested for a meeting between the NFP accounts team, representatives of the independent auditor and his verification team “so that the issues that the registrar’s team has identified is conveyed to all the parties”.
He said verification of NFP accounts for the years 2015, 2017 and 2019 had been completed.
“Only 2016 is pending as the registrar is yet to receive all the receipt books from NFP for the year 2016 and once the receipt books are received then the verification of the accounts will be finalised,” he said in a statement issued yesterday.
“The NFP has until the 23rd of September to furnish the registrar with the receipt books for 2016.”
Meanwhile, in a letter to Mr Saneem yesterday, NFP president Pio Tikoduadua asked the registrar to direct all communications on the matter to him.
Mr Tikoduadua also asked Mr Saneem to provide them with an agenda for the proposed meeting.
He said the independent auditors would have just started their work and information requested by the registrar had just been provided, so the party did not understand the purpose of the proposed meeting.
