Maravi

Chifungula warns govt controlling officers against abusing funds

Chifungula warns govt controlling officers against abusing funds
Written by Kabanda Chulu
Wednesday, April 22, 2009 6:10:59 PM

AUDITOR General Anna Chifungula has warned government controlling officers not to misuse public funds since the global economic crisis may last longer than expected.
And Chifungula said her office has always been auditing the Task Force on Corruption, contrary to sentiments that the institution was not audited.

Commenting on the recent adoption of the 2009 budget by the National Assembly, that would pave way for disbursements of funds to government departments and line ministries, Chifungula said this was not the time to waste public funds and resources.

"My advice to permanent secretaries and other controlling officers is to use funds prudently since budget implementation will soon start, in this time of the global crisis, we should not waste resources because these economic problems might last longer than expected hence we may find ourselves in much bigger and complex problems if we do not put the few resources to good use," Chifungula said.

She said the Office of the Auditor General last year held a series of meetings with permanent secretaries and other controlling officers because they thought they were given a "raw deal."

"During a series of meetings, we explained to them how we operate and we emphasised that there should be minimum wastage of public resources, since most of them think that we are just trying to be hard on them but the nature of our work is simply to audit government funds and for other clients," Chifungula said.

She dismissed assertions that the Task Force on Corruption was not regularly audited.

"All government institutions are audited every year including the Task Force on Corruption and on the issue relating to district councils, we do audit them and it is not only Petauke District, almost all councils were found wanting, since they do not have proper [qualified] accounting personnel," said Chifungula.

Labels: ACCOUNTING, ANNA CHIFUNGULA, TASK FORCE

posted by MrK @ 5:12 PM