Amb. Emmanuel Mwamba writes;
Musokotwa broke the law on allowing Audit of Defence and Security wings by private entities
….the Auditor General can only appoint external auditors to audit the defence forces
where circumstances of an audit justify such subcontracting, and additionally, the prior written consent of the President, authorizing access by external auditors is obtained…..
Minister of Finance, Dr. Situmbeko Musokotwane, has justified hiring and paying out K16.8million to private audit firms that conducted the audit exercise on the defence and security forces.
As we stated then, both payments and the exercise remain illegal according to the Public Audit Act as the Auditor General did not sanction such an audit and did not obtain prior consent from the President as demanded by the law.
Let me quote from the Law Association of who strongly objected to Musokotwane’s decision;
“From the onset, it is the Law Association of Zambia’s position that the Auditor General has
general power to appoint external auditors under section 10 of the Public Audit Act, No. 29 of 2016 to audit any state organs and state bodies.”
“Despite this general power to appoint external auditors, the Auditor General’s authority to subcontract the audit of the Defence Forces is limited by the provisions of section 24(3) of the said Public Audit Act, No. 29 of 2016, which expressly enjoins the Auditor General not to permit any authorised person, agent or specialist consultant to have access to any book, record, returns report
or other document, or to enter the premises of any component of the defence force, national
security services or a law enforcement agency.”
“The restriction on access to records of the Defence Force is re-echoed under the provisions of section 73(2) of the Public Finance Management Act,No. 1 of 2018.”
“These provisions are aimed at ensuring that the security of the nation is not compromised.
However, the Auditor General can only appoint external auditors to audit the defence forces
where circumstances of an audit justify such subcontracting, and additionally, the prior written consent of the President, authorizing access by external auditors is obtained.
“This is provided under section 73(3) of the Public Finance Management Act, No. 1 of 2018 and the preconditions are meant to safeguard national security”.
