“Capacity development should NOT be a one-time occurrence. Rather, it should be an ongoing exercise spread throughout the term as Members need to familiarize themselves with practices and procedures but when it comes to issues that are regularly raised in the House- such as budget oversight and the scrutiny of bills- then members need to be constantly updated”
This is part of the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, Lord Tu’ivakano’s opening remarks to open the Tonga Public Accounts Committee Workshop at the Davina House.
The workshop was intended for the members of the Standing Committee on Public Account and Finance but the Speaker invited all members of Parliament to take part in the workshop.
The workshop is co-hosted by PASAI (Pacific Association of Supreme Audit Institutions) and PFTAC (Pacific Financial Technical Assistance Centre) and funded by the Australian Government.
Former Minister of Finance and Governor of the Reserve Bank Sosiua ‘Utoikamanu is leading a team of experts to facilitate the workshop. Other trainers include Eroni Vatuloka, Chita Marzan and Savenaca Narube.
PASAI promotes transparency, accountably and efficient use of public sector resources in the Pacific. In pursing that goal it helps member countries to improve the quality of public sector auditing to uniformly high standard, enhance the impact of audit findings and assist with performance audits, and other related financial advice and assistance.
PFTAC supports Pacific Island governments to achieve and enhanced growth and poverty reduction. PFTAC’s guiding objective is to improved economic management and sustainable economic growth across the Pacific Island Countries. Using the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF’s) surveillance and technical expertise, PFTAC responds rapidly and flexibly to country demand for high-quality technical assistance (TA) and training in improving their macroeconomic management.
The workshop is timely because one of the most first item of the Legislative Assembly’s agenda before the new financial year is the budget. This will workshop will assist strengthen Member’s scrutinising role.
The training will conclude on Thursday 21st of January at lunch time at the Davina House.