The New Zealand government has found no evidence of fraudulent use of its aid money to Tonga, the New Zealand High Commissioner to Tonga, Jonathan Austin, confirmed in a statement yesterday, January 19.

It follows months of wrangling over how the Tonga government spent NZ$1,360,362 given by the New Zealand government to finance Tonga's Constitutional and Electoral Reform Programme between 2008 and 2011.

After an alarm was raised last year by the Auditor-General, Pohiva Tui'onetoa of a possible misuse by the Prime Minister's Office of the aid money, an independent auditor was called in to audit the fund.

"An independent audit late last year found no evidence of fraud in the programme, but identified poor record-keeping, leading to some money being inadvertently used for other government purposes," the New Zealand statement reported.

The New Zealand High Commissioner said the final report from the independent auditor was received by the High Commission on 23 November 2011. "We are satisfied that there was no evidence of fraudulent use of the New Zealand aid money. The Tongan authorities' investigations into the use of Government of Tonga money in the Prime Minister's Office is a matter for them."

Discussions with Tongan officials resulted in the return of unspent funds under the programme.

The New Zealand Deputy High Commissioner, Peter Shackleton confirmed yesterday, that the unused balance of $94,215.20 pa'anga was returned to New Zealand on January 18.