Maravi

PAC grills Mutiti over delayed banking of K6.9bn

PAC grills Mutiti over delayed banking of K6.9bn
Written by Ernest Chanda
Thursday, April 30, 2009 2:50:44 PM

THE parliamentary public accounts committee (PAC) yesterday grilled home affairs permanent secretary Ndiyoyi Mutiti over delayed banking of government revenue amounting to about K6.9 billion.

This was after Mutiti's submission to the committee revealed that about K9.5 billion which should have been banked in 2007 was banked in February this year.

Committee chairperson Charles Milupi wondered why the ministry could allow such a serious anomaly, which amounted to abuse of government funds.

According to the 2007 Auditor General's report, under the Ministry of Home Affairs there was a delay in banking revenue among various departments, ranging from five to 285 days.

At Immigration headquarters, a sum of K5,883,004,423 was involved while in Lusaka region, K944,485,000 had not been banked since 2007.

At Katimamulilo border post, K134,869,675 was only banked this year after being delayed for two years.

Mutiti's submission invited reactions from several committee members among them Nchelenge member of parliament Ben Mwila who wanted to know if there was gross financial indiscipline in the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Mutiti could not however admit or deny Mwila's statement, but simply kept quiet.

Milanzi MMD member of parliament Chisanga Banda observed that the ministry had a tendency of recovering money without punishing the culprits.

He was supported by Milupi who emphasized that recovery alone was not punishment but that the culprits should have undergone serious disciplinary process.

"I have observed PS [permanent secretary] from your submission that the ministry has a tendency of simply recovering missing money without punishing the culprits. My view is that the persons involved should have been punished first before they could even be asked to bring back the money. What you are doing is like what the English say 'closing the stable door after the horse has bolted.' Our purpose as a committee is to ensure that there is serious adherence to financial regulations. In this case we want to know what actions have been taken on erring officers," Milupi said.

Mutiti was also at pains to explain how the police command could give a verbal contract to a company supplying various commodities to the Zambia Police Service.

"Yes, I admit that there was a verbal contract to supply more goods than what was signed for in the written contract. This verbal contract came from the higher authorities at command level and usually junior officers just follow what they are being told. And I wish to admit that what we did was not correct. I have talked to the current command that we should stop this and abide by the regulations," said Mutiti.

"Indeed it's a challenge that our own house is not clean when we are busy arresting others for the same offences. It's shameful to follow others over the same when our house is not in order. And I must assure the committee that we shall try to abide by procedures in order to avoid such problems."

Labels: CHARLES MILUPI, CORRUPTION, NDIYOYI MUTITI, PAC

posted by MrK @ 1:52 PM