Poor record keeping, not fraud was behind allegations that hundreds of thousands of dollars of New Zealand aid money had been misused by Tonga, an audit has found.
An independent audit into the financial management of the Constitutional and Electoral Reform programme in Tonga found no evidence of fraud, Foreign Minister Murray McCully said.
Last month, Fairfax Media revealed that the Tongan auditor-general had undertaken an investigation into a NZ Aid Programme for democratic reform in Tonga. It is was alleged that $330,000 of aid money provided by New Zealand and Australia had been misused. The Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministry said it was first alerted to the investigation late last year.
"These allegations arose from a report by the Tongan Auditor-General that highlighted a lack of appropriate accounting for the expended funds. The report left open the question of whether this was the result of poor administrative practices or more serious inappropriate behaviour," McCully said.
"The New Zealand Government was not prepared to leave that matter unresolved, so we immediately launched an independent audit.
"I am pleased to confirm that the independent audit has found no evidence of fraud. The issues have arisen due to poor record-keeping rather than anything more suspicious. We have made it clear to the Tongan Government that we expect a higher standard of accounting for aid funding in future."
The Tongan auditor general's report will not be made public until Tongan Parliament is reconvened next year.
