The Report of the Auditor General on the Accounts of the Republic for the financial year ended 31st December 2016 has shown a continued increase in the misapplication of funds from K28,153,997 in 2015 to K162,095,699 in 2016.

In a statement released today, Auditor General’s office head of public relations Ellen Muleya Chikale stated that the report which had been submitted to Parliament showed unretired imprest increased from K12,659,892 in 2015 to K17,559,399 in 2016, while unaccounted for revenue has increased from K558,499 in 2015 to K3,700,509 in 2016.

The reports also shows that unaccounted for funds has increased from K193,910 in 2015 to K386,834 in 2016 and unaccounted for stores increased from K13,460,323 in 2015 to K14,428,573 in 2016 among irregularities.

“Although unvouched expenditure seemed to have reduced from K349,306,160 in 2015 to K170,559,399 in 2016, it is still the highest ranking irregularity for the period under review and continues to be an area of high concern for the office. The other irregularity that is of high concern to the office is the misappropriation of funds which stands at K3,618,127 in 2016,” Chikale noted.

“It was also noted that during the same period, irregular payments reduced from K115,350,860 in 2015 to K1,591,348 in 2016, failure to follow procurement procedures reduced from K35,701,492 in 2015 to K509,535 in 2016, instances of undelivered materials reduced from K251,523,804 in 2015 to K116,759,240 in 2016, wasteful expenditure reduced from K39,854,959 in 2015 to K3,586,879 in 2016 and over payments from K26,559,013 to K1,061,247 in 2016.”

She noted that a number of ministries were not cited in the report because the Office of the Auditor General resolved some irregularities through collaborations.

“Further, there was more collaboration between the office and controlling officers and as a result a lot of issues were resolved during the audit process. Because of this, a number of ministries, provinces and spending agencies (MPSAs) have not been cited in the report. Also interesting to note is that the office has for the first time issued an opinion on the consolidated financial statements of government in line with Article 211 of the Constitution of Zambia (Amendment) No. 2 of 2016. The opinion on the Consolidated Financial Statements is included in the report and the Financial Report presented by the Honourable Minister of Finance,” Chikale stated.

The table below shows a comparative summary of some of the major issues contained in the report: