PM’s OFFICE SEEKS LEGAL ADVICE OVER UNRETIRED FUNDS
Office of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. Photo credit: SICR
The Office of the Prime Minister is seeking legal advice from the Attorney General’s Chambers regarding outstanding imprests of more than a million dollars unaccounted for by the past and present government officials.
Secretary to Prime Minister, Joseph Wale told SIBC News the office has sought advice from the Attorney-General’s Chambers.
Mr Wale said the two options they have is to pursue the officials involved directly or go through other agencies such as the Office of the Ombudsman.
He said some of the officers involved are very senior officials and some are no longer in service, making it difficult to pursue them if they want to reconcile the imprests through deduction of their salaries.
The Auditor-General’s office recorded 31 outstanding imprests from the Prime Minister’s Office and revealed them during the Public Accounts Committee hearing in April last year.
At the hearing, Secretary to Cabinet James Remombatu told the committee that many of the imprests had to do with medical trips overseas for Ministers and former political appointees as well as the past and present Government officials.