Maravi

Govt auditor complains of receiving death threats

Govt auditor complains of receiving death threats
By Mwala Kalaluka
Friday April 04, 2008 [04:00]

AN officer from the Auditor General’s office yesterday complained to the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that death threats were issued to him when he was auditing Western Province administration books of accounts last year. Western Province auditor Evans Bumba told PAC that the audit responses submitted by provincial permanent secretary Patrick Kashinka to the committee seemed ‘incomplete’ because of the “frosty relationship” that existed during the audit period.

“One of the officers had to issue death threats to me,” Bumba said. “There were a number of difficulties that I encountered just from the onset.”

He said instead of cooperating, the officers wanted to give directives on how the auditing process should have been conducted and that it reached a stage where he had to report the matter to his superiors in Lusaka.

The committee learnt that the director of audit for provinces, Matthew Hara, had to travel to Mongu to quell the dispute between the audit team and the provincial administration.

Hara told PAC that it was clear that even his intervention in the issue, which he said was characterised by “unpalatable language”, did not help the situation.

But PAC chairman Charles Milupi said the issue was worrisome and a signal that there were things that auditees were trying to hide from the auditors.

“If we are being told that there was lack of cooperation, are you telling us that this report is invalid? And why is this the only province where there has been no cooperation?” Milupi asked Kashinka.

Kashinka said the issue had been harmonised by the Auditor General’s office.

He said the complaints of death threats were found to be unfounded and that he would have dealt with the culpable officers had Bumba reported the issue to him.

However, PAC temporarily sent Kashinka out of the room to deliberate whether they should accept the delegation’s inadequate report or call for a re-audit through the committe later decided to take it as it was presented.

And PAC also quizzed an action where the department of resettlement in Mongu misdirected about K87 million out of the K336 million that was allocated towards the provision of water supply in three land resettlements in the province to the procurement of a vehicle.

Labels: AUDITOR GENERAL, CHARLES MILUPI, DEATH THREATS, EVANS BUMBA, MATTHEW HARA, PAC, PATRICK KASHINKA

posted by MrK @ 10:03 AM