Maravi

State funds disbursement should be advertised -Levy

State funds disbursement should be advertised -Levy
By NKWETO MFULA

PRESIDENT Mwanawasa has directed the Ministry of Finance and National Planning to advertise funds disbursed to government departments to ensure accountability in the management of public funds. Deputy Minister of Finance, Jonas Shakafuswa said President Mwanawasa wanted to see that money released to government departments was spent on intended projects to benefit the people. "President Mwanawasa has directed the Ministry of Finance to advertise amounts being allocated to the ministries and institutions for accountability seek," he said.

Mr Shakafuswa said this on Thursday night during the launch of a book titled "Show me the Money " by Transparency International Zambia (TIZ). The book is a product of research and analysis of the reports of the Auditor-General in the past 20 years.

He said the efforts by TIZ were commendable as it provided the government and stakeholders of an indication of the magnitude of the problem of accountability of public funds. He said the publication was being launched at an appropriate time when Government was equally taking measures to deal with the continued loss of huge sums of public funds through unscrupulous activities of public service workers, politicians and indeed the private sector. "The loss of public funds cannot be blamed on only one sector.

As a nation, we should take collective responsibility for this loss and use this as a spring board to develop and implement stringent control and accountability measures," he said. Mr Shakafuswa said Government was aware of some of the weaknesses but people should appreciate that there were a number of initiatives in place.

He cited Parliamentary Reforms being implemented and the Public Expenditure Management and Financial Accountability being instituted. Mr Shakafuswa said Government would therefore remain open to dialogue to suggestions on how the fight against corruption could be strengthened. He urged the Anti-Corruption Commission and the office of the Auditor General to work together and take corrective action to investigate and prosecute all cases of theft of public funds.

And giving an over view of the book, Premus Media representative, Tom Thewe said K1.2 trillion was loss of expenditure in ministries between 1984 and 2004 which translated into K800 million loss of expenditure every month. Mr Thewe said the failure to maintain adequate and reliable expenditure records and returns, unjustified payments and procurements misapplication of available resources to unjustified and irrelevant areas were the major contributors to loss of expenditure.

Earlier, TIZ acting president Reuben Lifuka said it was sad that a lot of government officers, cited in the reports for misuse of public funds had not even been questioned by the law enforcement agencies to account for their deeds.

Labels: CORRUPTION, GOVERNANCE, TIZ

posted by MrK @ 7:34 PM