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OPA got 179 complaints in 2017
The Office of the Public Auditor received 179 complaints over the course of 2017.
According to OPA’s Report to the Citizens of the CNMI for 2017 that was released yesterday, the investigation division of OPA received 179 complaints in 2017 and that 91 of that number were either unsubstantiated or lacked OPA jurisdiction, while 39 were referred to the appropriate agencies for disciplinary action.
Six were referred to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, while five were referred to the Attorney General’s Office. According to the report, 38 cases are either ongoing or pending at the end of 2017.
The OPA legal division also conducted 11 government ethics code training and presentations as well as issued procurement appeal decisions.
Throughout 2017, the OPA audit team attended a total of five trainings: the Office of Inspector General-Lakewood Experience; Ernst & Young-Compliance Audit, Office of Management and Budget Circular A-133, Not for Profit, Health Care and Government Public Sector training; Graduate School USA-Preparing Useful and Useable Workpapers and Developing Critical Thinking by Kevin Dungey; Association of Pacific Islands Public Auditors conference in Majuro, Marshall Islands; and Graduate School USA-Audit Supervision, Evidence, Working Papers & Other Topics, Yellow Book Updates, and Peer Review by Drummond Khan.
The OPA investigation team attended the Premier Investigation’s Workshop hosted by Wicklander Zulawski.
OPA noted that two members of the audit team gained the designation of certified fraud examiner by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners
OPA noted that in February 2018, the Republic of Marshall Islands Office of the Auditor General and the Pohnpei State Office of the Public Auditor would both conduct peer-reviews on the OPA.
Back in 2014, OPA received a full compliance rating, which is the highest of three possible ratings issued in an external quality control review. OPA would be participating in the peer-review of the Republic of Palau Office of the Public Auditor. OPA reportedly participated in the Guam Office of Public Accountability peer-review back in 2017.
