September 2010 - Performance Audit
The OAG engaged the services of Peter Robinson to set up a performance audit branch. The first performance audit report, Management of the Government Motor Vehicle Fleet, was completed in March 2011.

July 2008 - The tragic Death of Floyd Augustine Fatai
OAG was shattered by the tragic death of its Auditor General on 3rd July 2008. Floyd was a great leader and mentor and developed OAG to its current strong position after years of neglect. Under his leadership OAG went from 3 staff to 35 and numerous reports have been tabled in Solomon Islands Parliament providing a blue print for reform in the entities. He will be sadly missed but left an institution determined to carry on his great work.

February 2008 - Skills Development
An integral element of the Capacity Building within OAG is the identification of skills required for staff to perform successfully their respective duties. Again, using an Audit Trainer all staff went through an intensive program of skills assessment and identification of future requirements. Ongoing assessments were undertaken in February and August 2008 which reflected a significant improvement by several staff against the model.

In addition to technical skills development, OAG staff has become increasingly engaged in internal management tasks, and have recently been fully participative in strategic planning for the Office for the next five years Strategic Audit Plan cycle. This exposure is intended to provide the staff with the basic management skills required for career progression within the Office, as well as identify potential future senior managers for further development.

December 2007 - Auditor General’s Address
In conjunction with Transparency Solomon Islands the Auditor General gave a key note address launching his latest Audit Report on the topic of “An Auditor General’s Insight to Corruption within the Solomon Islands Government.” This was part of the World anti-corruption day activities organised in December 2007.

March 2007 - Provincial Government Accounts
After some fifteen years or longer of malaise, the accountability within Provincial Governments received a boost following implementation of the RAMSI-funded Provincial Financial Management Improvement Project which resulted in the catch-up of 143 financial years of accounts to 31st March 2007 for all provinces. OAG was heavily involved in the management of the project, as well as responsible for conducting the audits of the later year accounts for each Provincial Government.

The impact of the project has been highly successful, with four of the Provincial Governments having already submitted their accounts for the financial year ended 31st March 2008. The OAG has already undertaken audits of those Provincial Governments and signed-off on two of those government’s accounts, and audits are currently underway on the remaining provinces’ accounts and records whilst waiting for their respective financial statements.

June 2006 - Statutory Bodies Accounts
As was the case for Provincial Government accounts, the statutory bodies in many cases had not been compiling or submitting their accounts for audit for many years. The OAG has taken responsibility for the audits of some of the bodies which had been audited by private firms under contract to the OAG in past years. In addition, the majority of the State Owned Enterprises [trading statutory bodies] are currently being assisted under a RAMSI-funded State Owned Enterprises Accounts Strengthening Project to bring all their accounts and audits up to date to Financial Year 2007.

The OAG has been heavily involved in the design process of the project, and will be responsible for managing the audits to be conducted under the project – these audits will be undertaken by an international audit firm under contract to the OAG. It is anticipated that the project will be completed over the next twelve months. Opportunities will also be taken during the project to expose OAG staff to the international audit methodologies practiced by this contractor firm as part of their technical skills development.

1978 – 2008
At independence in 1978 the OAG had a staff of around 28 officers and the roles and duties of the Auditor General were largely spelt out in two pieces of legislation, the Constitution and the Public Finance and Audit Act 1978. Following self-government the Office functioned reasonably well for ten years after which time the auditing machine started to fall apart through an avalanche of staff departures to the private sector and public sector agencies due to their marketability.

During the following period of some ten years there was a rapid decline in the quality and standard of OAG due to staff losses and reduced resources culminating in an ineffectual office with no reports being prepared or presented to Parliament for almost twenty years. The few effective audits performed were undertaken by the private sector on behalf of the Auditor General. This resulted in a grossly ineffective OAG which by 2003 and the arrival of RAMSI had a staff of three persons.

The absence of an effective audit function within government over such a protracted period of time led to an unchecked and ultimately disastrous breakdown in public accountability - an environment typified by poor financial management practices and weak controls, which have resulted in significant losses in revenue and an environment conducive to fraud and corruption.

Since the recommencement of audit activity following the inception of the RAMSI institutional capacity building program, the foundations have been laid for the path to recovery, with significant early progress being made towards realising the strategic outcome of reinstating the OAG as an effective supreme audit institution.

Successful recruitment programs were undertaken in 2005, 2006 and 2007, which have secured a contingent of local staff with sound basic skills. Under the capacity building program, these individuals are being nurtured and developed to become the future of the organization.

To assist in the capacity building processes, the OAG has recruited expatriate audit specialist advisers to develop the strategic direction of OAG and formulate and conduct training programs, mentor the new local recruits and build their skills base by providing practical on the job training and experience and supplement resources with a view to clearing the backlog of audit work.

During the last two years some 14 Reports on the results of audits and investigations have been finalised and tabled in the Solomon Islands Parliament. These reports identify the significant shortcomings in the Ministries in the last five years and show a blue print for the future direction for these Ministries.

2007 witnessed a significant achievement in the catch up on the financial reporting backlog wherein the Solomon Islands Government National Accounts were certified for the years 1998 to 2003 and the outcome of these six years audits were included in a Report to the Parliament tabled in August 2007. Further, the audits of the National Accounts for the three years 2004-2006 were finalised in July 2008.

Similarly, following OAG involvement with the Provincial Government Financial Management Improvement Program, a most encouraging initiative of AusAID, all outstanding accounts of the nine provinces were recently reported upon by the Auditor–General representing a major step forward in the catch up process. A similar initiative in the State Owned Enterprises (SOE) arena will enable a major improvement in the SOE sector.