Auditor General completes council audits

The National Audit Office (NAO) has completed auditing district council accounts dating back to 2010 which could point to whether government funding has been spent prudently the past four years.

Auditor General Stephenson Kamphasa disclosed this in an interview on Monday that his office was in the process of completing the 2012/13 year audit to be submitted to the Minister of Finance who

would then table it in Parliament before being forwarded to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) for further scrutiny.

With funding from the KFW development bank of Germany, NAO is expected to commence an audit of the district councils for the 2013/14 financial year, but the institution has so far funded the 2012/13 audit and would support the 2014/15 district council audits.

“We have a lot of work to do, but funding has been a challenge. But with the resources from Irish Aid and KfW, we will be able to complete the exercise,” Kamphasa said.

NAO had previously told the media that audits being carried out were not related to suspected Cashgate transactions in the councils, but were mere scheduled audit process which had been waiting for funding.

PAC chairperson Alekeni Menyani said the committee would work diligently to offload the backlog of audit reports which are before them.