Auditor General Ron Mwambwa says he was passionate about reporting the misappropriation of funds that took place at the Ministry of General Education because it was the only institution with such a high record of fund mismanagement in 2016, adding that he hopes others learn.

And Mwambwa says it is unfortunate that there is a public outcry over the lack of action on culprits named in the Auditor General,s report.

Speaking to News Diggers! in an interview, Mwambwa observed that there numerous complaints from the public on the lack of action, but said he could only go as far as publishing the reports.

“Yes everyone is complaining [that nothing is being done about the findings in the Auditor General’s report] and I am only hoping that the authorities are listening to the people that are complaining so that we can enhance the actions which are being taken arising from my reports [as Auditor General]. I think you would understand that the furthest I can go myself is to produce the reports and then there are other wings of government which come in and do their part,” Mwambwa said.

Asked if it offends him to see that no serious action was being taken on revelations that came from his office, Mwambwa said: “One good thing is that I am doing a government job. I am doing this for the Zambian people so I am happy and I love doing my job but it’s for other people also to take it up from where I stop and try to follow up and see what they can do. Otherwise, from our reports you can see that there are certain areas which need improvement and our goal is to make sure that some of these leakages are actually sealed so that we protect government resources.”

He emphasised that he was passionate to report the fund mismanagement at the Ministry of General Education because the institution had the highest level of misapplication involving public funds.

“There are quiet a number of leakages that need to be sealed and most of them were documented in my last report for 2016. They were quiet a number, really and one of them was the Ministry of Education. And I was quiet passionate about the Ministry of Education because of what we reported, they had the highest level of misapplication involving public funds. I actually wish to see an improvement in that ministry and I hope that other people [or government departments] can learn from the experience at the Ministry of Education,” Mwambwa said.

Meanwhile, Mwambwa expressed confidence that his office’s newly launched strategic plan would enhance accountability of financial management in public offices.

“We are glad that we have finally launched our strategic plan and as you may be aware, this is a plan that covers the period from 2017 to 2021 and basically, the process we have undertaken is to try and align it to the Seventh National Development Plan (7NDP). As you know issues of accountability and financial management are quiet cardinal to us. So this plan which we have just finished will enable us refocus our efforts to make sure that the implementation of this plan is in line with the 7NDP in as far as enhancing financial management is concerned,” said Mwambwa.