Story by Gay Matambo
THE Public Accounts Committee has concluded its analysis of the 2024 Auditor General’s Report this Sunday, with the findings expected to be presented in Parliament in the shortest possible time.
In an interview with ZBC News, the Acting Auditor General, Ms Rheah Kujinga, reiterated the importance of the report in strengthening accountability, transparency, and good corporate governance in public sector entities.
“We went through each report, and there are three reports that are the local authorities report, the state-owned enterprises, and the ministries’ central government. We did an analysis. Presentations were made, and also the Budget Office of Parliament made some presentations, going through the report, the findings, and also the recommendations we have made for action,” she said.
Chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee, Honourable Caston Matewu, gave an update on the key findings of the 2024 Auditor General’s Report.
“This is an annual exercise which is in terms of the Constitution, in terms of Section 200 of the Constitution. Parliament must oversee expenditure and how every government entity has used its money.
“What we have noted is that most of the rot is in local authorities, only 2 out of 92 local authorities had clean reports, which means that there were material misstatements in 90 local authorities. What we are doing now is we have analysed it, and we are going to call upon Parliament every single government ministry, agency, and local authority that we believe has had some form of material misstatements in their accounts.”
The Auditor General’s Reports have assisted in building trust in government entities, thus spurring the achievement of the country’s development goals.
