Payroll audit moves to MDF, State Residences
The payroll audit of the public service which found that 10 percent of civil servants needed further tracking is moving to Malawi Defence Force, State Residences and National Intelligence Bureau, it has been learnt.
The three institutions were skipped in the exercise which took place a year ago due to funding problems.
While not committing to the specific date when the audits would commence at the institutions, NAO spokesperson Rabson Kagwamminga said this week there was funding for the exercise from the organisation’s 2016/17 budget.
He said: “It is important to note that the audits in question have not yet started. We are, however, expecting to be on the ground soon and planning for the assignment is already far advanced. The focus of our attention this time around will be the institutions that were skipped previously including: MDF, NIB and State House.”
MDF is one of the government agencies whose personnel information such as established and filled posts as well as the cost in the current financial year is not contained in the programme-based budget rolled out to all ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) in the current financial year.
However, MDF is one of the security institutions which the forensic audit by the RSM Risk Assurance Services LLP of United Kingdom (UK) identified as topping financial mismanagement related to fraud, procurement and payments that did not match goods and services.
MDF’s K20.9 billion allocation in the 2016/17 budget is spread across 17 cost-centres, among them the headquarters in Lilongwe, Zomba and Lilongwe airbases, four barracks, two marine units, two brigades and two battalions, parachute and engineers, among others.
State Residences, on the other hand, reported staff levels of 948 as of July 2015 according to the personnel information contained in the programme-based budget document.
NIB, which falls under the national intelligence programme of the Office of the President and Cabinet, had a K445 million allocation for salaries and other allowances, but established posts were absorbed in the OPC personnel information programme.
Results from previous payroll audit
Results of the head count done so far remain unknown as the report is yet to be tabled before Parliament by Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development Goodall Gondwe who is mandated in the Public Audit Act.
Authorities said the report was inconclusive, but our sister newspaper, Weekend Nation, revealed that 2 300 civil servants were removed from the payroll with savings to the Treasury estimated at K4.1 billion.
However, Kagwamminga said he could not provide a timeframe for the completion of the exercise, but said the report would be discussed with and made available to the client, Ministry of Finance, Economic Planning and Development.
He said the payroll/ headcount report, like any other report, will follow the normal procedures before it is compiled together with other management reports into the Auditor General’s Report for tabling in Parliament.
“But suffice to mention that the audit will soon be completed and the nation will know the results via the legally accepted reporting channels. Until it is sent and tabled in Parliament, we cannot divulge its contents according to the Public Audit Act of 2003,” he said.
The head count came against the background of existence of ghost workers in the civil service who siphoned public funds. n
