Roads Fund owes govt depts K5.7bn

Roads Fund Administration (RFA) owes several government departments about K5.8 billion in project payments and other accrued expenses, an audit report has shown.

The report by audit, business and advisory firm KPMG seen by The Nation shows that the arrears range from contract expenses, lake resorts access roads under then Ministry of Tourism, road projects payments, retentions payable to non-remittance of construction levy to Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development and other accrued expenses.

In an interview on Wednesday, RFA spokesperson Masauko Mngwaluko confirmed the arrears owed to government departments, but said some of the outstanding payments can only be settled once they have been verified.

He said: “These are normal balances because payments can only be made once the parties owed have submitted a request and verification has been done. So, as of 30th June 2016, we had not received such requests.

“As Roads Fund, we administer resources to contractors; that is why

the report is indicating that we owe funds to certain departments. In addition, the funds we get from government is not a lump sum, in most cases it is subvented.”

Treasury spokesperson Alfred Kutengule said he was not aware of the report and asked for more time to access it.

He said: “I am not aware of the report. But most government departments are supposed to be audited by December, so it is understandable why there is the KPMG report. But send me a questionnaire.”

However, by the time we went to press, Kutengule had not responded.

The then National Roads Authority was split into Roads Authority and RFA. The latter’s mandate is to raise, administer and account for funds for construction, maintenance and rehabilitation of public roads in the country. n