PAC to engage Molale over lax accountants

BAME PIET
Staff Writer | Monday June 24, 2013 00:00

 

The chairperson of the PAC, Nehemiah Modubule, and his colleagues Guma Moyo, Isaac Mabiletsa, Fidelis Molao, and parliamentary technical advisor Phillip Mutamba, revealed this on Friday when addressing journalists on the PAC proceedings that ended the previous day.

The PAC examines government accounting books at the end of each financial year and the latest examination took place from May 21 to June 20. The committee found that budget execution left much to be desired. 'There were some extreme cases of under and over estimating and budgeting in both revenue and expenditures.

For example, the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning votes registered P2.12 billion below the estimated revenue while on the other side, the other votes registered over-collections amounting to P3.22 billion,' the committee found.The PAC also found that the Ministry of Transport and Communications registered an under-collection of P616.8 million and an over-collection of P14.9 million.

The committee lamented that these extreme variances make it difficult for government to budget for services it is supposed to provide to the nation, as it may not be sure of the funds available for use.'On the other hand there was a general outcry from ministries that their expenditure budgets were inadequate and yet at the end of the financial year, a total of P4.03 billion remained unutilised throughout all ministries,' observed the committee.

The PAC expressed displeasure with a backlog of cases before the Attorney General's Chambers involving non-retirement of imprest and non-recovery of personal advances. 'Such cases arise due to failure by ministries to take action on time. 'The Attorney General's Chambers has challenges of staff constraints and for those cases, which are before courts of law, they do not have the power to influence the court processes.

As a result, the cases take long to be resolved in court, hence remain in the books of government for years on end.'Other concerns were on write-offs, retention deposits, liquidated and ascertained damages and failure to provide supporting documents by accounting officers. 'Despite guidance by the committee on the documents they are supposed to provide as evidence to support their reports, accounting officers continued to provide the wrong documents especially the sub ledgers.

The committee always provides submission/reporting guidelines in its reports but it appears Accounting Officers do not read them and so end up providing wrong documents,' Modubule said.Meanwhile, its not all gloom and doom, as the committee was happy to announce that the Ministry of Science and Technology has come up with initiatives to reduce fraudulent claims by contractors engaged in government projects.

'Even though the impact may not be felt by or visible to many of us as yet, it is envisaged that if the initiatives continue to be applied effectively, there will be a turnaround in the way government projects are implemented because these initiatives are already beginning to show results.

'For example from May 2011 to February 2012 a total of 33 incorrectly made claims, at a total value of P157 million was submitted and only P16.9 million was awarded thereby saving government around P140.1 million,' the committee said.The PAC will present its report to the National Assembly during the July meeting.