On Wednesday 1 November 2017, the Vanuatu National Audit Office (VNAO) team welcomed their newly appointed Auditor General, Mr Caleb Sandy of the Shefa Province. Mr Sandy was previously Director of the Department of the Government Remuneration Tribunal (GRT). He is a highly experienced accountant, well versed with Government and Financial services operations with internal audit background. In addition to this, Mr. Sandy also has immense knowledge of remuneration, having specialized expertise in the remuneration of over 6,000 government workers in past 3 years. Mr. Sandy also has in depth knowledge and experience in the Financial Services Sector.

His duties as Vanuatu’s AG will be a switch to the field of external auditing, while it will be an opportunity for the VNAO to acquire first-hand knowledge of Mr. Sandy’s financial services and internal auditing expertise.

Mr Sandy’s vision is for the audit office is to produce the timely audits, quality output and professionalism in the Office’s scope of works. He says that one of his aims is to eliminate existing audit arrears so that by end of year 2019, the office will only be concerned with previous financial year audits of 2018. He also stresses that during his term as AG, he would emphasize on the Government’s need for better financial control and reporting so that the Office could issue audit opinions better than the current issuing disclaimers on Vanuatu Whole of Government accounts. Furthermore, the VNAO is currently focused on financial audits alone, while Mr. Sandy’s intention is to improve on Performance and Compliance Audits as part of the office’s standard regimen. 

The VNAO forecasts a bright future working with Mr Sandy during his term in office.