Maravi

Nyanin urges govt to act on Auditor General's reports

Nyanin urges govt to act on Auditor General's reports
By Chris Mulaliki in Solwezi
Monday July 23, 2007 [04:00]

WORLD Bank country manager Ohene Nyanin has urged the government to take the Auditor General’s reports seriously and discipline officers who abuse public funds. Dr Nyanin in an interview said people expected the government to act on financial irregularities as raised by the Auditor General and take measures to curb the abuse of public resources.

“We expect government to take these reports seriously and act on these issues raised in the Auditor General’s reports. We expect funds released by both government and donors to be used properly to improve the welfare of people,” Dr Nyanin said.

He said that the Auditor General’s reports enabled the government to manage public resources properly by making sure that controlling officers who abused public funds were held accountable.

Dr Nyanin explained that when donors released money for projects, they expected the money to be put to good use for people’s benefit.

Dr Nyanin observed that failure by the government to act on the reports might affect the economy’s growth because controlling officers would continue stealing public funds, thereby denying people better services.
Dr Nyanin said rural areas in the country remained undeveloped due to poor infrastructure such as roads.

“The government’s Fifth National Development Plan (FNDP) can never be achieved with poor financial controls. It is very important for government to put in measures, whether it is our money or government’s money,” he said.
Dr Nyanin said the core business of World Bank was to help countries develop their economies thereby improving living conditions of their people.

“If the country’s economy continues to grow at the rate of five per cent, it would take us 40 years to graduate and stop borrowing from the Bank,” he said.
Dr Nyanin said it was possible for the country to graduate from borrowing from the Bank just like other countries have graduated.

“If Korea can graduate, why can’t Zambia graduate? Most European countries used to borrow from the Bank to develop their economies,” he said.
Dr Nyanin urged the government to maintain the Vision 2030 and involve Zambians in running of the country’s economy.

The Auditor General Anna Chifungula recently disclosed that the Ministry of Finance and National Development has failed to account for K1.3 trillion in unreconciled balances at the Bank of Zambia.

Chifungula said the unreconciled transactions between the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Zambia were exposed in the outturn consolidated financial report released by the Accountant General for 2005.

Labels: AUDITOR GENERAL, OHENE NYANIN, World Bank

posted by MrK @ 6:15 AM