Audit picks on HA staff

STAFF members of the Housing Authority of Fiji have been accepting money from customers without verifying the finance sources, says Local Government Minister Premila Kumar.

She said this was one of the findings in a recent audit and public inquiry reports on Housing Authority of Fiji two weeks ago.

Speaking at a news conference in Suva yesterday, Mrs Kumar said the audit was conducted after cases of corrupt practices surfaced on a number of dealings of staff members and members of the public.

“Income verification was mostly limited to submission of customer pay slips signed by the employer,” she said.

“The authority did not consistently carry out independent verification of customers’ income.

“They also failed to do adequate due diligence on income of those applicants who were sole proprietor, household income verification was not performed in case for a single applicant.

“The selection and allotment of lots processing were not documented.”

She said there were complaints raised by members of the public in relation to very long waiting for allocation of lots while those who did not qualify appeared to have received lots over the most deserving.

Mrs Kumar said the authority had lost its purpose over the past several years and operated without any direction.

She said there was failure on governance, risk management and compliance by the authority that led to the failure in the functioning of the authority in an accountable and transparent manner.