Lawmakers blast lax govt officials

Recently, Mark Botomani, the chairperson of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC), presented a report in which he expressed disappointment with uncurbed financial mismanagement highlighted by the Auditor General’s reports in the fiscal year ended June 30 2021. The lawmaker rebuked government for failing to discipline controlling officers who mismanage public resources in ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).

What are the main concerns from your committee?

The committee has been observing poor record keeping highlighted in all Auditor General’s reports. We noted that important documents such as payment vouchers, allowance liquidation sheets, fuel and stores ledgers, contracts as well as procurement files could go missing during audit exercises. As such, the MDAs failed to account for the resources spent on various activities.

The committee further observed with great concern that critical supporting documents such as invoices, receipts and loose minutes were never submitted to the auditors at the time of the audit. They could not be traced due to poor record keeping. This is worrisome as it shows high levels of laxity in the MDAs in as far as prudence in financial management is concerned.

How serious are the problems highlighted?

According to the Auditor General’s report for the period under review, payment vouchers worth K5.5 billion were submitted to auditors without the necessary supporting documents attached to them. Ironically, the major culprits were State Residences, Parliament of Malawi, Malawi Defence Force, Ministry of Youth and Sports as well as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.

There were also accounting queries in Malawi embassies in Egypt and Berlin in Germany. Other main culprits were the Southern Africa Tuberculosis and Health System Support Project, Ministry of Transport and Public Works, Department of Immigration and Citizenship Services and Legal Aid Bureau.

Why is the committee concerned about these issues?

The committee’s scrutiny and consideration of the said report was in line with its mandate of promoting the accountability of MDAs as well as statutory bodies. The committee exists to  hold them accountable for the efficiency and effectiveness with which they use public resources. Most of the times, the ones that are blamed and exposed when issues of financial irregularities are reported are politicians, who are basically policyholders. Of course, politicians have a role to play, especially in guarding against abuse of public resources and corruption. However, most of the work is done by these technocrats. So the committee noted that it is high time we emphasised on these things to make sure that our technocrats are living up to the billing because they are supposed to be guiding and advising political heads in these ministries.

What does the law require when it comes to public finance management?

Section 14 (1) of the Public Finance Management Act of 2022 lists the responsibilities of controlling officers.

Sub-Section (1)(d) states that controlling officers are supposed to ensure that all accounts and records relating to the functions and operations of their institutions are properly maintained.

It is a standard accounting procedure that payment vouchers ought to be accompanied by the relevant supporting documents and that these should be filed together for accountability and justification of payments. It was, therefore, a huge disappointment to the committee that MDAs continued to only submit payment vouchers to the auditors and care little about the accompanying documents.

What solutions does your committee recommend?

We recommend that government should come up with strategies that would ensure safe keeping of all official documents in MDAs. The committee suggests that one such strategy would be digitising all relevant official documents to ensure safety and easy accessibility. In addition, the committee calls upon government, through the Secretary to the President and Cabinet and the Secretary to the Treasury, to ensure strict adherence to treasury instructions and all other laid-down statutes that govern the management of public resources such as the Public Finance Management Act.

What are your expectations after presenting this report?

The committee has proposed recommendations to curb the observed malpractices. It is the belief of the committee that every controlling officer in the MDAs shall seriously consider the recommendations herein and abide by the lessons therein.  The committee submits this report and its recommendations to the House and the nation at large in the hope that it shall assist in instilling a culture of prudent use of public funds and resources.