VP’s office explains missing K83m
The Office of the Vice-President said this week it was facing challenges in record keeping, a development that has resulted in alleged misappropriation of about K83 million through payments without supporting documents.
The office’s explanation follows an Auditor General’s report for the financial year 2015/16 submitted to Parliament which revealed that government lost about K4.4 billion due to weaknesses in financial and internal controls in government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).
The audit said the Office of the Vice-President failed to account for K83 million meant for fuel and also made payments of K45 million without supporting documents.
While confirming the issue in an interview this week, the Vice-President’s press officer Pilirani Phiri said the issue “is just a matter of documentation” and referred The Nation to the office’s director of administration Eric Yesaya.
In a separate interview, Yesaya allayed fears of fraud and blamed it on poor record keeping within the office’s accounts section.
He said as part of accountability of resources, the VP’s office invited the National Audit Office (NAO) to audit their accounts after noting that they had taken several years without being audited.
Yesaya said it would have been illogical for the office to invite auditors if they knew the funding had been messed up.
He said: “After their audit some documents, including the ones on fuel, were not properly put together. Actually, the K83 million being referred to was the total allocation for the 2015/16 financial year and if this was misused, then it means no single vehicle moved in the VP’s office the entire year.”
On the K45 million payments without supporting documents, Yesaya said documents for all payments were traced and ready to be presented to the auditors.
He observed that with the upgraded Integrated Financial Management and Information System (Ifmis), it was impossible for Treasury to make payments without supporting documents and their case was “purely due to system decay in documentation”.
Said Yesaya: “This time there is also pre-audit at the Accountant General’s office where vouchers and all necessary documents are prepared before the cheques are issued. Otherwise all our documentation is now in order and intact.
“Again, since the audit was covering four consecutive financial years, it was not easy to put every document together. So, our accounts personnel could not present the records in time for 2015/16 financial year and the auditors proceeded to prepare their report. In addition, the exit meeting where we could have presented the said documents did not happen.”
NAO spokesperson Rabson Kagwamminga asked for more time to consult the audit report before commenting.
He said: “I can’t comment on specific issues because I would have to refer to the report and also engage the team that was responsible before giving you a comprehensive response.”
The audit exposed plunder and abuse of public resources in MDAs through payments without supporting documents as well as ghost workers.
