Maravi

Lubinda seeks shorter stay for accountants at missions abroad

Lubinda seeks shorter stay for accountants at missions abroad
By Moses Kuwema
Fri 06 Apr. 2012, 13:54 CAT

FOREIGN affairs and tourism minister Given Lubinda says he will be seeking President Michael Sata's authority to recall all the accountants that have overstayed in Zambia's missions abroad. In an interview, Lubinda said the accountants had to be replaced with new ones.

"Generally what I have said to our officials is that a lot of our accounting officials in missions abroad have overstayed in these missions. You can imagine there are some missions where accountants have been there for 11 years; that is too long for a person to be away from Zambia in the mission," he said.

"And this time I don't want any accountant to go in our missions abroad without that person being sanctioned by the Accountant General."

Lubinda said the Accountant General must second staff for missions abroad.

"That way, they will have control over their staff. The idea of the past of sending cadres to go and do accounting functions in missions is wrong and this government will depart from that. I want to ensure that we create a career diplomatic service and if there is any starting point, it will start with the accounting staff because those are the ones who have the financial responsibility and I would like to make sure they are people who can be punished," he said.

Lubinda said there were some cases of bad practices in the different missions abroad.

"I don't think that they bad practices can be attributed right now to abuse, they might have been misapplication and so on but not necessarily outright abuse," he said.

Lubinda said he expected to see some improvement in accounting processes and procedures in missions abroad once civil servants occupy the missions.

"If it is a person who is on contract and their contract comes to an end, that's it; but if it is a person employed by the civil service, then at least you can hold on to their terminal benefits. That way, I expect to see an improvement in accounting processes and procedures in missions abroad," said Lubinda.

The Auditor General's reports have consistently revealed financial irregularities in most of Zambia's missions abroad.

Labels: ACCOUNTING, EMBASSIES, GIVEN LUBINDA

posted by MrK @ 5:07 PM