Papua New Guinea's auditor general, George Sulliman, says the public sector is in disarray due to poor record keeping and a raft of other failures.
Mr Sullimann has told the Internal Audit Conference in Port Moresby that often no records are kept to account for the activities in PNG's government departments.
He says put simply, sometimes there is nothing to audit because the records are non-existent.
Mr Sulliman points to a lack of bank reconciliation, poor documentation, a lack of physical stock takes, non-acquittal of travel allowances, non-payment of taxes on allowances and ineffective budget control.
And he says some of the accounts they do get to audit are as many as six years old.
