Mhen wants internal auditors in councils
Malawi Heath Equity Network (Mhen) has asked government to deploy internal auditors to all 28 district councils for effective management of public finance resources.
Mhen executive director George Jobe said in an interview that according to the research his institution conducted in Ntcheu, among other challenges, it was discovered that lack of auditors was seriously affecting management of funds in the councils.
He said auditors are supposed to provide guidance and direction on how the financial resources should be used and that their absence was a big threat.
Said Jobe: “It is not a surprise why some councils are failing to account for the money they received because the internal auditors who could have been providing direction and advise the authorities how to use the money are not there.
“May we humbly request the government to act with urgency and deploy auditors to our councils to avoid wastage of public funds.”
Yohanne Nyanja, planning and economic analyst for the National Local Government Finance Committee, said government was also concerned with the absence of internal auditors and that plans to deploy them to the councils were at an advanced stage.
He said: “The findings of the research are a true representation of the situation on the ground, but let me assure Malawians that government will soon deploy auditors to all the 28 district councils.
“We expect these auditors to assist in managing the finance resource and improve transparency.”
However, Nyanja was quick to point out that councils should be ready to support and work with auditors once they have been deployed.
He said: “The challenge that we have had is that each time auditors are sent to councils they are not given the necessary support as they are normally regarded as ‘the police’ and that they are there to hunt down those found misappropriating public funds.
“This is a wrong attitude; auditors are there to perfect performance of the council’s activities, particularly where matters of finance are concerned.”
Apart from the absence of auditors, the research which was supported by Mamaye, an organisation that promotes maternal and child health in the country, also discovered a huge coordination gap between councils and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and civil society organisations (CSOs).
Furthermore, the research discovered that councils did not involve people from the rural areas when preparing their annual budgets, a development which was described to be sad as the needs of the rural mass were obviously left out.
About K7 million was injected into the research where, among others, members of the council were trained in budget tracking and transparency. n
