State auditor reviews operations of Nam Theun 2 dam
State auditor reviews operations of Nam Theun 2 dam
The State Auditing Organisation (SAO) has released its audit of the management and use of income from the Nam Theun 2 dam over a period of four fiscal years.
A meeting was held yesterday in Vientiane to review the audit, chaired by SAO President Dr Viengthong Siphandone.
The meeting reviewed the audited results of the management and use of income from the Nam Theun 2 dam for fiscal years 2009-10 through to 2012-13, according to a press release from the SAO.
The government has used the income derived from this project for socio-economic development in the fields of education and sports, public health, public works and transport, natural resources and environment, energy and mines, agriculture and forestry, and poverty eradication.
The review aims to ensure the government has complied with the principles of grant providers in the use of the budget to meet objectives and targets.
It is necessary that there is sufficient support, inspection and auditing of implementation, and insurance covering the period of the concession contract as defined and the achievement of planned national socio-economic development contribution in each period, the press release stated.
The SAO has conducted an audit of income and expenditure management and account-holding, and has drawn conclusions on its findings, making a summary and estimation of the use of income from the Nam Theun 2 hydroelectric project in order to report to the World Bank as it is required to do each year.
For the first four years under study the auditors collected information from all around the country and will move on to auditing years 2013-14 and 2014-15 now they have finished and issued their findings.
The results of the audit showed that management and the use of income for the four fiscal years amounted to 711.08 billion kip out of which the government had received an income since 2009-10 which had increased each year.
It showed that the use of income in some areas needs to improve as they hadn't yet built all management mechanisms, or established an expenditure plan correctly, as the government's financial information system from the Ministry of Finance does not ensure that account activity conforms to the state budget.
The SAO issued guidelines to solve any challenges and, according to their audit plan for 2014-15, will conduct an audit of the management and use of income generated by Nam Theun 2 for 2013-14.
The World Bank has expressed its appreciation to SAO along with certain technical officials for their cooperation in carrying out the commitments made by the government to the World Bank and providing reports on the audit of the dam to the World Bank for consideration and adoption.
The provision of audit results is essential to ensure the continued support of the World Bank in helping to fund national development.
