4. Submission of Accounts  5. Auditor General’s Certificate 6. Submission of the Report 7. Outstation Inspections The Annual Statements of Accounts for the financial year ending 31  March 2018 were submitted to me by the Accountant General, for the  purpose of auditing, as required by Section 42 (2) of the Public Finance  Management Act, within the time prescribed by the Act. The Act  requires that the accounts and statements shall be submitted to me  within 6 months after the end of the financial year to which those  accounts and statements relate.  The examination of the Annual Statements of Accounts of the Botswana Government for the year ended 31 March 2018, which had  been submitted to me in terms of Section 42 (2) of the Public Finance  Management Act has been completed and my certificate thereon  dated 25 February 2019 was transmitted to the Accountant General in  terms of Section 42 (3) of the Act.  In terms of Section 19 (3) of the Public Audit Act, (Cap 54: 02). I am required  to submit my report on the audit of the annual accounts and statements and  related matters to the Minister responsible for finance within 9 months after  the end of financial year to which those accounts and statements relate, that  is to say, 31 December in each year, who shall cause them to be laid before  the National Assembly.  For the year under review, I have not been able to meet the statutory  deadline, as my report was not ready for dispatch to the Government Printer  until March 2019.  The conduct of outstation inspections of up-country offices to review  their operations and compliance with the rules and regulations forms  part of the programmed audits of the Ministerial accounts. However, in  view of the countrywide spread of these offices, it is not possible to visit  all of them in any one year, but have to be done on a selective and  rotational basis.  3 