Maravi

Zamtel finally accepts to be audited

Zamtel finally accepts to be audited
By Ernest Chanda
Thu 22 Dec. 2011, 13:51 CAT

ZAMTEL management has finally accepted to be audited by the Auditor General after the intervention of the Attorney General and Secretary to the Treasury.

Revealing the new development in an interview yesterday, Auditor General Anna Chifungula said her office struggled to get a go ahead from the telecommunications company, but later moved in early last week.

Early this month, Chifungula revealed that Zamtel refused to be audited by her office arguing that the government was a minority shareholder in the company.

Chifungula later wrote to Attorney General Mumba Malila seeking legal opinion on the matter.

Asked what challenges her officers were facing during the auditing of Zamtel, Chifungula admitted facing some but said they could be overcome.

"Yes we are auditing Zamtel but it was a big struggle. We had to get the Attorney General to give an opinion which looked at the agreement which they signed; which the government of Zambia signed with Zamtel where it provided for the Ministry of Finance to actually appoint auditors to look into the operations of Zamtel. So, we used that provision to go in, and the Secretary to the Treasury wrote them a letter asking them to provide their books," said Chifungula.

"We started last week, they auditors moved in on the 14th of December. They should be done by this week because it's up to 23rd. Challenges are there but I think the biggest challenge we had to overcome was to actually start the audit. I know they're giving us a lot of problems, but nothing that we can't deal with."

The Banda administration last year sold Zamtel's 75 per cent shares at US$257 million - about K1.3 trillion to Libya's LAP Green Network, but the former paid US$334 million - about K1.7 trillion to retain its remaining 25 per cent shares in the telecommunication company during its privatisation.

Labels: ANNA CHIFUNGULA, AUDITOR GENERAL, ZAMTEL

posted by MrK @ 10:26 PM