THE SAGA OF MISSING 45 APEC VEHICLES AND OTHER ASSETS AND OUTSTANDINGPAYMENTS TO SERVICE PROVIDERS

By Sir Arnold Amet


"Several months ago, after APEC, the
Secretary for Finance took out full page advertisements in the two daily
newspapers, urging state agencies and individual employees of of state
agencies, to return APEC assets they had in their possession or custody.

"Today in the headlines of the National newspaper, again the Secretary
is urging government departments which may be using 45 vehicles, which
are reported to be missing, to return them.

"When the
advertisements were taken out early in the year, I resisted the
temptation to ask this obvious question, but now that the Secretary is
again stating that, 'All departments had been instructed early this year
to return all the vehicles', I ask it. Mr. Secretary does your
department and other relevant APEC office not have a record of who the
motor vehicles and other assets were distributed to for service during
APEC, such that you have to take out expensive advertisements and now
report that “ '45 vehicles are missing?' "

"Mr. Secretary did
the APEC organization not keep any records or what assets were donated
or purchased and who they were distributed to for use during APEC? It
just seems so basics to governance requirement for accountability that
we keep records of these expensive assets as to who they were
distributed to for use. If there were done, then surely Mr. Secretary,
you simply need to use your executive authority to instruct the relevant
agencies and individuals to return them a long time ago.


"Quite obviously, it would seem we did not do this, which begs a whole
of questions and issues, such as who was managing all of these, that now
8 months into 2019 you have to make public plea for these assets and
vehicles to be returned. Somebody in the APEC organization surely kept
some record of who were issued these assets. But perhaps that is too
much to expect. We did not keep any records so you now are taking out
paid advertisement and issuing press statements.

"Bilateral
development partners and other donor agencies who donated some of these
assets must be laughing at us. How embarrassing this is.

"The
other related issue is that of outstanding payments to service
providers, for the provision of various service for APEC. This happens
all the time with major events, such as during elections, natural
disasters and international sports and so on. Again, simple question
come to mind; did we budget properly for these services or do we just go
ahead and commit these expenses and then struggle continually to find
money to settle these. Most of the time, these are our small to medium
enterprises, who need these payments.

"Just some observations about our public governance responsibilities."