House moves to strengthen Auditor General’s office

Parliament has adopted a Public Appointments Committee (PAC) report aimed at fixing challenges in the Auditor General’s office to make it more effective.

The office has been operating without a substantive auditor general following the expiry of former Auditor General Stephenson Kamphasa’s contract over five years ago.

The report, adopted yesterday, among other things recommends that Parliament should fix the salary of the Auditor General at the level equivalent to the salary for Grade P2C in the Judicial Service.

Reads the report in part: “The House may wish to note that the National Assembly is responsible for the determination of salaries for officers in the Judicial Service.

“As such, to avoid multiple requests for determination of conditions of service, the determination of salaries for judicial officers will mean simultaneous determination of the salary for the Auditor General. Hence, the recommendation above.”

The report also recommends that the Secretary for Department of Human Resource Management and Development should facilitate the delinking of the National Audit Office from the main stream civil service in terms of appointment, promotion and disciplining of staff of the National Audit Office.

The Auditor General will be expected to propose conditions of service for staff of the National Audit Office that would enable the National Audit Office to attract and retain well-qualified officers.

“In the meantime, the Minister of Finance may consider adopting a salary structure of a comparable constitutional body with a competitive salary structure for application to the National Audit Office,” recommends the report.

In the report, PAC has stressed that the National Audit Office is one of the crucial governance institutions established under the Constitution to assist government in checking how public funds are utilised.

The office further provides assurance to the public on how public funds are utilised and by extension, enables Parliament to exercise oversight on the use of public funds.

“Such an institution requires a level of independence in its operation. To that effect, the Public Audit Act provides the necessary elements that would give effect to the independence of the National Audit Office.

“In this report, therefore, the committee has examined those elements for the independence of the National Audit Office particularly on the appointment, promotion and disciplining of staff of the office,” reads the report.

Public Appointments Committee chairperson Joyce Chitsulo commended Parliament for adopting the report, saying improving conditions of service for the Auditor General is a must to make the position attractive.

She called on Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs to ensure that the office of the Auditor General is independent.

“It is our hope that the Minister of Finance will ensure the office is really independent and that the  Public Audit Act is being implemented not only to ensure the office is independent but also performance of the office,” said Chitsulo.

Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairperson Mark Botomani called on government to support the Auditor General’s office all the time.

He called on government to ensure that a substantive auditor general is employed.

“We have not had the auditor general for the past six years or so. Of course, we have revisited our laws which will allow government to speed up the recruitment of auditor general, but up to now there is nothing,” said Botomani.

He also called on government to allocate resources in this year’s budget for the construction of the National Audit Office, saying the building housing the AG’s office was condemned and recommend for demolition.

In response, Minister of Finance Sosten Gwengwe said government is working on employing the Auditor General. He said the position has been advertised.

“We will expedite the process because as the house has lamented, it has been too long without a substantive auditor general,” the minister said.

He added that in the absence of the substantive auditor general, the Public Accounts Committee chairperson has been working closely with Treasury to ensure that the National Audit office is properly funded.