AN investigation report into a $184,740 payout to interim Prime Minister Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama - for leave he said was owed from 1978 - will be ready by month-end.
Auditor-General Eroni Vatuloka said "we hope to complete the report by the end of February".
It is unclear at this stage whether the report will be made public.
Ministry of Finance permanent secretary Peceli Vocea said he was attending a meeting in Nadi and asked that questions be faxed to him.
Mr Vatuloka normally reports directly to Parliament, which then makes the report public. But under the interim regime, his reports have gone to the interim finance minister. The interim Finance Minister at present is Commodore Bainimarama.
Mr Vatuloka first began investigations into the payout in July "as soon as it (the payout) was made public".
In September, Mr Vatuloka told the military to get its books in order and prepare for an audit by his office.
A Republic of Military Forces leave computation form obtained by the Fiji Times in mid-July stated Commodore Bainimarama was back-paid for 698 days.
His Fiji National Provident Fund was boosted by $20,406.71.
The breakdown showed that the RFMF came to that payment after the commander's basic salary of $263.77 was multiplied by 698 days.
His service allowance came to $3832.02, duty allowance was $23,013.92, gratuity for a year was $24,069 and for another 10 months it was $20,057.50.
Commodore Bainimarama's expenses allowance came to $23,904.11, while his ration allowance was $5235. At the time, the interim Prime Minister referred all queries to the army chief-of-staff, Colonel Mohammed Aziz.
Colonel Aziz, who denied this was a payout, said 40 other officers who were seconded since the December 2006 coup received similar treatment. He declined to disclose the total funds diverted for this exercise.
It is within the RFMF budget, he said.
Colonel Aziz said since the payout, the RFMF issued a directive for all those on non-essential duties to take leave and that no one was to accumulate more than 30 days any more.
He said even though Commodore Bainimarama had taken leave since enlisting in 1975, the balance from all the years was never compensated.
Unfortunately, this was not compensated in the period and was carried forward until Commodore Bainimarama was appointed interim Prime Minister, he said.
All the leave was impinging on the pay emolument of the military and, if carried forward, there would be more liability attached to it.
In the national Budget, the military was allocated $15million more than last year, leaving its budget allocation at $96.8m for this year.
The military administration budget increased from $5.6m to $10.2m with staff increasing from 131 this year to an estimated 281 next year.
The allocation will cater for court-martial expenses, special joint operations, health awareness and civil military affairs.
