FINANCIAL IRREGULARITIES DURING PF REIGN WORRISOME
31st October, 2022 – Lusaka
Contact: UPND Media Director Ruth Dante Heaton/ +260 976 593 165
Email: dante.ruth@gmail.com
GROSS financial irregularities during PF rule continue surfacing and posing a worrisome situation. The PF presided over state institutions either without thorough forensic audits of these institutions or such audits were undermined deliberately to loot public resources.
Despite having not been taken seriously by the PF, forensic audits are very important as they are used as a deterrent against potential corruption and employee financial misconduct where the results of such engagements can assist the relevant authorities in developing future action plans to help prevent, detect and deter fraud in public institutions.
For instance, according to the Auditor General’s Report, in the financial years ending 2020 and 2021, the Ministry of Local Government (now Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development) signed a total of 190 feeder road contracts in amounts totaling over K9 million against a total budget provision of about K4 million resulting in over commitment of K9, 433, 913, 996.
In addition, there were 42 contracts on feeder roads that had been brought forward prior to 2020 with contract sums of about K2 million but this ended up in over commitment of contract sums of over K12 million as at 31st December 2021.
The implication of these over commitments was that the PF Government was unable to honour payment obligations and as such, debt and interest accrued exponentially, a situation which in turn affected overall service delivery. They left empty coffers due to financial mismanagement coupled with heavy looting of public resources thereby recessing the economy to a growth rate of negative 2.8 percent as at August 2021 although the UPND Government has managed to turn this situation around with the economy now growing at positive 4 percent.
The need for forensic audit cannot be over emphasized in a developing country such
as Zambia that was highly prone to corruption, an evil that has in the past seen the collapse of the world’s major economies and has robbed developing countries such as Zambia of the much-needed resources.
There surely is need for the current Government to continue closing governance gaps and enhance transparency and support accountability so that the country can now engage in constructive transactions.
The UPND Government’s pronouncement on enhanced forensic auditing of past and present transactions is thus justified. With President Hichilema and the UPND at the helm, the dream of a better Zambia is becoming a reality and together we will achieve.
(C) UPND MEDIA TEAM