Contract for foreign currency payment missing - AG

CHANDAPIWA BAPUTAKI
Staff Writer | Friday April 16, 2010 00:00

In his report, that was released this week for the year ended March 2009, the Auditor General said therefore he was not aware of the duration of the engagement and how much money the company was paid.

He said he had drawn the attention of the accounting officer to the matter and had not received her comments by the time of writing the report for the year ended March 2009.

The Auditor General's report revealed that the number of students on the department's computerised database, which was supposed to capture all students sponsored by government in tertiary institutions in the region, differed significantly from the number on the spreadsheet, which was a number of the actual payments of the students allowances.

The report said in this instance there had not been any attempt to reconcile the two records to detect any possible erroneous payment.

The report further stated that a scrutiny of the database at the department, which is the control record of all students sponsored in the year under the review, has indicated that some students had incorrect national identity card numbers, in that middle gender identification numbers were other than the recognised ones.

The Auditor General said he had not been able to ascertain how the students dues and entitlements were processed relying on the National Identity cards as a means of identification.

In another case still on the accounts of the department, the Auditor General said government has paid a total of P1, 010, 107 in tuition fees for students enrolled with an institution in Gaborone where they failed to write their examinations as the college had not registered them with the university which offered them their degree courses.

He said as the fault had primarily lain with the college through, failure to secure registration and approval for students, the department has sought to obtain compensation for the wasted expenditure for the year in question. The Auditor General has said in his report that at the conclusion of the audit the matter had not been resolved and he was not aware of what transpired on the account.