PAC sends Community PS Chikamata away

Thu, 01 Dec 2016 09:57:23 +0000

MINISTRY of Community Development Permanent Secretary Davy Chikamata was yesterday sent away by the Parliamentary Accounts Committee (PAC) for failing to provide authentic explanations on a range of irregularities as contained in the Auditor General Report.

The PAC has ordered Mr Chikamata to verify his facts about the documents he presented before the committee which he claimed were not ready at the time the Auditor General’s Office was conducting its routine audit checks.

Mr Chikamata did not amuse Chairman of the committee Howard Kunda when he claimed that his ministry could not provide all the authentic documents at the time of auditing because according to him, the ministry was understaffed and some documents were misplaced.

Mr. Kunda wondered why the ministry did not provide the documents at the time of auditing when they were aware of the Auditor General Offices’ routine audit checks.

He said the documents submitted to the committee were not authentic, thereby requesting the PS to provide verified documents.

“You were supposed to have all necessary documents available when the auditors came to your office. You have accountants to make sure that all documents are available.

“We are here to audit, why didn’t you provide these documents at the time of audit? My advice is you go through the documents, have them verified by the Auditor General and give us proper information on the submission. In the future take such issues seriously, we cannot verify this document because it’s too bulky, moreover we are not auditors,” Mr. Kunda said.

Mr Chikamata also said some documents were misplaced at the time of auditing.

“During the time of audit, the documents were not available because we are under-staffed, our officers could not handle all the work in all districts and other documents were misplaced at that time,” Mr. Chikamata said.

In his submission, the permanent secretary indicated that the missing supporting documents at the time of the audit had been retrieved and were available for verification.