Financial Secretary Jeremiah Frett is blaming the shortage of staff and technological issues for the failure of government to present up to date audited financial statements.
During the Standing Finance Committee, the Leader of the Opposition Myron Walwyn questioned how far behind government was with audited financial statements and expressed concern that stale financial information had limited value for policymaking.
In response, Acting Accountant General Wendell Ronan says that the last completed audited financial statements were for 2017 and that financial statements for 2018 through 2021 had been submitted to the Auditor General, while statements for 2022 through 2024 were completed but still undergoing internal verification and had not yet been submitted.
When asked by the Opposition Leader for the reasons behind the chronic backlog, noting that this issue had persisted since at least 2011, and asked what was required to bring reporting up to date, the Financial Secretary Jeremiah Frett explained that the causes pre-dated current leadership and included staffing capacity constraints, technological issues with financial systems, and logistical challenges in producing complete and accurate information.
Frett says to address these, the ministry had engaged an experienced former Accountant General, invested in staff training and leadership, and introduced specialised software, to generate and analyse financial data, with an intention that all outstanding statements would be submitted to the Auditor General by the end of the year.
When asked by the Leader of the opposition how the Territory secured loans without recent audited statements, the Financial Secretary stated that lenders were provided with broader financial information and records, and noted that for the CIBC $100 million loan the government had committed to supplying audited statements as they became available.