DOI Office of Inspector General and APIPA Annual Conference for Year 2010 Recently Held in Honolulu

Four ONPA staff attended the U.S. Department of the Interior, Office of Inspector General's annual conference with the principals of the Association of Pacific Islands Public Auditors held at the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Honolulu from February 2 to 4, 2010. The conference was attended by the acting Inspector General Ms. Mary Kendall and her key staff; representatives from the Departments of Defense and Home Land Security; the Public Auditors and selected staff from the Insular Areas such as the American Samoa, FSM, Guam, Marshalls, Palau, Saipan, and the Virgin Islands. Representing the FSM at this year's conference were Mr. Haser Hainrick, National Public Auditor; Mrs. Sophia Pretrick, Chief Investigator; Mr. Edwin Barnuevo, Audit Supervisor; and, Mr. Michael Nakasone, Investigator.

The conference provided a crucial opportunity for the APIPA principals to exchange ideas and to share common issues/challenges that each OPA is faced with; updates regarding the military buildup in Guam and its associated accountability challenges; as well as training sessions in fraud detection and prevention.

The FSM team show-cased their Fraud Awareness Briefing during the conference led by Chief Investigator Pretrick. The acting Inspector General and all conference participants applauded the effort in carrying out the fraud awareness campaign in the FSM. This presentation has stimulated other OPA's interest in adopting and implementing similar fraud awareness briefing in their respective nations.

Eight hours of Continuing Professional Education were earned, and the participants' costs were paid for by the DOI-IG who hosted the conference.