Africa-Press – Malawi. Weak enforcement of Auditor General’s findings and recommendations is said to be costing government billions of taxpayers’ money. The observation was made in Salima District during presentation of an analysis of audit reports for the three financial years of 2018, 2019 and 2020, commissioned by the Economic Association of Malawi (Ecama).
According to the analysis, government ministries, departments and agencies failed to account for almost K20 billion as they could not provide vouchers for audit inspection.
The findings have also revealed that over K1.5 billion was not accounted for and about K1.4 billion was fully paid to companies and individuals who were given works to do in government but did not complete their work.
The study further notes that government continues to lose billions of Kwacha due to delays in paying contractors, works fully paid but not completed, accumulation of interests, failure to process funds through Ifmis, and failure to liquidate fuels.
The report has also noted that hiring of contractors without qualifications and award of many contracts to a single contractor are also costing Malawians billions. The report noted that the issues were recurring in almost all the audit reports for the three years.
The analysis shows that in the year 2019 alone, delays in paying contractors cost government K 13.2 billion and government MDAs could not account for over K 1.2 billion in the year 2020. The report further bemoaned continued non-compliance to public finance management laws.
For example, an analysis of the three audit reports shows that in 2019 and 2020 respectively, government funds transfer for referral medical cases abroad amounting K645 million and K 2.8 billion could not be liquidated.
The analysis shows that K425 million and K 171 million were revenue spent at source without Parliament’s approval. When asked to comment on the Ecama analysis, National Audit Office spokesperson Rabson Kagwamminga said the role to act on findings and recommendations of audit reports lies with Parliament.
“You should not forget that ours is a parliamentary auditor general whose mandate is to audit and report to Parliament,” he said
Centre for Social Accountability and Transparency Executive Director Willy Kambwandira blamed Parliament for failing to decisively act on the recommendations and findings of the audit reports.
“I must admit that we have seen significant improvement on the reports; the recent audit reports have been detailed with names of public officers suspected to have plundered our taxes. Sadly, we are not seeing genuine sanctions being taken against them. We know that the mandate to act on findings and recommendations lies with the Parliament. Unfortunately we have not seen decisive sanctions being taken against public officers. Generally, findings and recommendations of the Auditor General are ignored, and this is fueling abuse of public funds. This is frustrating to oversight institutions such as NAO,” Kambwandira said.
He has further asked the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament (Pac) to be proactive on such issues. On his part, Chief Executive Officer of the Institute of Internal Auditors in Malawi Albert Dambula echoed calls for Pac to take corrective action on the matter.
Dambula has also recommended the setting up of audit committees in both public and private institutions to minimise such anomalies. On health infrastructure development, the analysis has blamed the government as most projects are implemented outside the capital investment plan and the hiring of contactors without required qualification.
The report has pointed out that the country’s infrastructure has been marred with delays in completing projects, accumulation of interests, failure to review designs before recruitment of contractors among other many things.
Meanwhile, the Auditor General’s report for the financial years 2020/21 shows that about K 9.7 billion of Constituency Development Fund cannot be accounted for.
For More News And Analysis About Malawi Follow Africa-Press
