PAC meets Zamba on financial management
Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament has challenged Secretary to the President and Cabinet (SPC) Colleen Zamba to clean up the mess in the civil service, especially on public finance management.
The committee met Zamba in Salima on Saturday where they expressed concern over failure to follow procedures in the civil service which results in loss of public resources.
In an interview yesterday, PAC chairperson Mark Botomani said the committee has urged the SPC to punish controlling officers such as Principal Secretaries (PSs) for their failure to sanitise their respective ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).
He said: “We told the SPC that abuse of resources happens because officers are not strict enough, especially the PSs in monitoring how MDAs are following procedures.
“You find the same challenges every year in audit reports, and we asked for seriousness. If need be, those not following procedures must be dismissed.”
Botomani said they asked Zamba to also find a way of dealing with abuse of funds at various embassies and Malawi missions abroad.
On the K6.2 billion Covid-19 funds, Botomani said the SPC vowed to appoint another day for PAC and her officials to meet to map a way forward on the matter.
“Overall, it was a very cordial meeting,” he added.
OPC chief communications officer Robert Kalindiza said during the Salima meeting, the SPC assured that government will fully migrate to the new Integrated Financial Management Information System (Ifmis).
He said the new Ifmis has incorporated modules that are addressing several systems’ limitations that PAC highlighted.
Said Kalindiza: “One of such modules is the electronic document management system [EDMS] which has been installed in the new Ifmis and will go live after training of end users this coming July.
“During the meeting, Zamba also said that her office will take necessary measures to ensure improvement in expenditure and accountability, among others.”
On embassy fraud, Kalindiza said the SPC will soon engage some government officials on how to deal with revenue realised from visas.
“The SPC said moving forward, her office will engage Secretaries to the Treasury, Foreign Affairs and Homeland Security to discuss how visa revenue can be utilised without incessant requests for authorisation to spend the funds from the embassies,” he said.
Kalindiza further defended OPC’s decision to hold the meeting in Salima despite Zamba’s order restricting parastatals from holding meetings with parliamentary committees outside Lilongwe.
He said that Salima was selected for convenience’s sake and was in agreement with PAC needs.
This was the first time for Zamba to face a Parliamentary committee since her appointment as SPC.
In November last year, the joint parliamentary committee investigating the botched K750 million fertiliser deal failed to interview her, as some members refused to have Zamba questioned.
