Auditor General Dick Sichembe says 67 local authorities out of the 116 councils audited have recorded an increase in irregularities from K2 billion in 2019 to K3 billion in 2020.
Dr Sichembe says the financial irregularities are owing to the failure to remit statutory obligations which increased from K1.6 billion in 2019 to K2.1 billion in 2020.
He says the findings also show that misapplication of funds also increased from K17 million to K18 million.
He said the council’s also saw an increase in unspent monies from 8 million kwacha in 2019 to 54 million kwacha in 2020.
Speaking during a press briefing, Dr. Sichembe said due to the financial irregularities in the local authorities, there had been poor service delivery, failure to meet statutory obligations and lack of community development.
Meanwhile, Dr. Sichembe also disclosed that the Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit -DMMU- among other issues failed to provide documentation for requests, quotations and actual quotations for awarding of contracts amounting to over 224 million kwacha 21 shortlisted suppliers to supply reusable and surgical masks among others.
Dr. Sichembe said the DMMU accumulated debt of over K394 million from the procurement of face masks due to the failure to confirm availability of funds before awarding the contracts.
He said the audit report also showed poor contract management by the Ministry of Health.
He cited a case where 36 contracts were given for the supply and delivery of over two million N95 face masks at over K214 million but the supplier provided KN95 face masks as one of the examples.
The Auditor General said suppliers that were supposed to provide items worth over 81 million and over US$203 United States dollars have not delivered and the ministry had no evidence of the action which was taken against them.
Dr. Sichembe said financial irregularities had also been observed in the ministries of Sports and Tourism.
On the audit report on Parastals, Dr Sichembe said 21 out of 33 companies under IDC recorded net losses totaling K7.3 billion in 2019, to K17.3 billion in 2020.
He said among the companies were ZESCO, Zambia Railways and Kagem Mining while 4 companies had negative work capital of which among them is Times of Zambia, Zambia Railways, Zambia Daily Mail and ZSIC General insurance.
Meanwhile, on the Audit Report for water and sanitation, Dr. Sichembe noted that there were some water utility companies that operated without a board of directors while others lacked audited financial statements. – ZNBC
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