AUDITOR General Anna Chifungula has said most recommendations by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) have not been acted upon by relevant offices and have been outstanding for some time.
Ms Chifungula said in the 2008 report that most of the recommendations made before 2006, for instance, had either not been implemented or authorities had partially done so.
“In an effort to clear outstanding issues, PAC appointed a committee of officers from the Ministry of Finance, National Assembly and office of the Auditor General to deal exclusively with outstanding matters on a continuous basis.
“In this regard, in July 2009, the officers met to review the status of the outstanding issues. It was observed from their report that there had been little or no follow-up action,” she said.
Ms Chifungula said there was, therefore, need for controlling officers to promptly respond to the observations raised by the reports to implement recommendations of the PAC.
Other issues were the accounting irregularities at the Zambian High Commission in Lilongwe, Malawi, on the position on the Kabula Hill House from the report of the year ending December 31, 1995.
Ms Chifungula said the other unresolved issues were on whether K107 million had been recovered at the office of the district education board secretary in Chama District as recommended in the 2002 report.
From the financial year ending December 31, 2003, some outstanding issues were the revenue on the sale of Government pool houses, progress on the unaccounted for K49 million of the Ministry of Education in Luangwa, and whether the retirement documents in respect of K44 million for the ministry in Mongu had been traced.
Ms Chifungula said from the 2004 report, outstanding matters were on whether K1.3 billion had been recovered from the previous contractor for the construction of border facilities at Katima Mulilo.
Others are the irregularities in accounting of weigh bridge charges at Kafulafuta on the Kapiri-Mposhi-Ndola highway, and whether K446 million had been reimbursed as recommended in the 2005 report.
From the 2006 report, the follow up was on whether irregularities in accounting for the poverty reduction programme fund had been resolved.
[Times of Zambia]
The Government is not keen on making follow ups on action taken on the recommendations.The frustrates the Auditor General and encourages perpetrators to continue abusing public funds!
I wonder why bloggers dont get interested in issues like this. Only politics. How else will they help improve things?
Back to the article, it seems we do not have an effective focus and purpose for these audits. Auditing should not be the end but only a means to an end. What we want is an impovement in the way we do things, hence recommendations from the audit process.
We need to have people with the specific responsibility to see that the results of the audit and recommendations are fully digested and implemented, as that’s the whole purpose. The buck stops at the head of the institution being audited. MPs should ensure that heads of govt institutions are taking audit findings very seriously. MPs represent us.
Spot on number 2
Madam, why does PAC take two years to audit govt expenditure? some of the culprits involved have moved to different position let alone died.
I think its very sad that we preach accountability yet we do nothing about results that are presented before us. shame on the leadership and people of zambia for not claiming what rightfully belongs to them
# 3 it’s not PAC that does the audits but Auditor General’s office and rightly as you put it they take ages. Now that the budget cycle has been changed I think they audits should also be done before the monies for the following financial year are disbursed.
Can those in making the constitution please give the Auditor General poers to prosecute PLEASE. Oh sorry I forgot they are the majority of those who mismanage funds.
People of Zambia i expect this story to generate more comments and anger than all thes political stories that everyone exposes there petty expertise on.
The reason the AG’s reports are not acted upon is because all or most of the PS’s (controliing officers) are politicians. Just look at the current crop of PS’s eg Simfukwe, Shelly, Chikwakwa etc. these are proper cadres. Do you think they can act on a report implicating a fellow cadre or politician?, the answer is NO. So way forward is either we change govt and bring in people who are ready to account or we scrap the AGs office since we do not respect its findings and recommendations.
Lastly LT, why do we have too many political stories? Editor kindly mix the stories to cover other areas. We are giving to much sppace to…
Auditor General is not taken serious.:((:”>8-|