Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Chairperson Howard Kunda says his team has moved away from the “business as usual” way of handling accountability matters involving public officers who are identified by the Auditor General.

And Kunda has expressed confidence that the recommendations made at the just ended sitting of the Parliamentary committees would instil a sense of responsibility in officers charged with the obligation of acting upon the findings of the Auditor General.

Kunda said this to News Diggers in an interview where he explained that PAC would ensure that investigative agencies were strengthened.

“I think that this issue of following up on what the Auditor General has come up with in their work as they are doing their audits, has in the past had some lapses but we are very expectant because this time around the way we have conducted our business at Public Accounts Committee, I think it shows that we have now moved away from the ‘business as usual’ way of doing things. We would like to now look at implementation of those recommendations that we come up with as PAC and also when the Auditor General comes up with a report, we expect that we don’t even need to call upon the investigative wings to come and do their work, they are just supposed to do it. So we expect that erring officers will face a tough time,” Kunda explained.

He added that PAC took it upon itself to engage security agencies and investigative agencies in the country to censure them against neglecting their duty.

“We took it upon ourselves as Public Accounts Committee to call the security agencies to appear before us so that we find out what the problem really is. This time around, we are expecting a change in the sense that we have heard from them, why they are not acting on some of these issues and we have told them our concerns as PAC that we would need to see whatever we have been saying and whatever the Auditor General has indicated in his reports, being attended to,” said Kunda.

“So that’s what we are expecting that our law enforcers and everyone involved, will do their work this time around. We are all partners to ensure that the Kwacha is followed wherever it goes. We must ensure that the money which has been used for the unintended purposes should be corrected because everyone expects development can come to this country from that money.”