The Ministry of Justice has over the past eight years failed to submit financial statements of the State Guardian Fund to the Office of the Auditor General, despite promising a Parliamentary Standing Committee to do so by January 15 2008.

The Guardian Fund - in which inherited money is kept in trust for children - could thus not be audited.

"The Ministry's accounting officer reported that he is unable to provide financial statements of the fund for the eight consecutive year," Auditor General Junias Kandjeke criticised in his latest report for the 2006-07 financial year, which was tabled in the National Assembly last Wednesday.

"At the time of writing (the audit report) only statements for 1999-2000 and 2000-01 were completed," Kandjeke said.

Kandjeke further noted that travel advances of N$864 153 paid by the Ministry had not yet been paid back in 102 cases.

Even worse, the auditors discovered that a special suspense account for S&T advances reflected that actually N$907 043 was outstanding.

A year ago, it was just over N$300 000.

"The Ministry's accounting officer is urged to comply with treasury instructions which stipulate to deduct outstanding S&T advances from the salaries (of civil servants)," the Auditor General demanded.