Hiring external auditors is not financial prudence – GBM
….abolish the auditor-general’s office if it’s not useful
18.11.2022
Former Minister of Defense Mr. Geoffrey Bwalya Mwamba has described the decision by the government of President Hakainde Hichilema to hire private auditors as a waste of taxpayers’ funds and an imprudent way of managing public resources.
Mr. Mwamba says spending over sixteen million kwacha on a job that can equally be done by civil servants who are employed to do it is highly disturbing especially that President Hichilema has repeatedly described his administration as prudent in the management of public funds.
“Just abolish the office of the auditor-general if you no longer need its services”, Mr. Mwamba has challenged President Hichilema.
If civil servants are capable of procuring goods and services, the former Member of Parliament argues, they are also capable of auditing expenditure and usage. These capabilities, Mr. Mwamba says are available in government.
In addition, the veteran politician says, for a long time now, the Zambian government has been building risk management units in just about every ministry to mitigate the possible loss of public resources.
“The President must reconcile with the fact that he is no longer in the private sector where he believed that professionals there were better than those in government”, Mr. Mwamba says, adding, “he must now begin to trust government employees or else he will frustrate them to the point where he will end up externalizing most public functions”.
Mr. Mwamba says it is not rocket science to establish Zambia’s public debt, what was bought and who undertook what public works, where and how much the cost was. All this information, he says, is now public knowledge.
“The President has continued on his campaign to frustrate civil servants because he believes they are all PF cadres and that they are loyal to the former ruling party who cannot be trusted to do their jobs”, Mr. Mwamba has lamented.
He says every failure by government has been blamed on civil servants who are accused of being PF cadres. And yet, Mr. Mwamba says, it is the President’s own failure to appreciate how the civil service functions and how to win the confidence of government employees to work with him.
ISSUED BY MR. GEOFFREY BWALYA MWAMBA
PF MEMBER OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE IN CHARGE OF MOBILIZATION AND ASPIRING CANDIDATE FOR THE POSITION OF PARTY PRESIDENT
