ACCOUNTING staff at the Copperbelt provincial administration office currently in court on various charges allegedly ran ‘ghost’ companies that provided goods and services to the Government resulting in the abuse of billions of Kwacha, Auditor-General, Anna Chifungula, has said.
Ms Chifungula said this in Lusaka yesterday when Copperbelt Permanent Secretary Villie Lombanya appeared before the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament chaired by Luena MP Charles Milupi.
Mr Lombanya appeared before the committee to explain financial irregularities as highlighted in the auditor-general’s report for the financial year ending December 31, 2007.
Ms Chifungula said that given the manner in which the funds were abused, it was clear that most of the accounting staff or others connected to them were running companies that never had difficulties in accessing their payments.
“There was a cartel to make easy payments and there is a likelihood that these companies were owned by people who were working in the accounting unit,” she said.
Narrating the abuse of funds, Mr Lombanya said that during the year under review, a provision of K1,559,226,616 was made for the construction of staff houses at provincial level and the Ministry of Finance and National Planning released K1,259,742,234.
He said it was regrettable that the money was not used for the intended purpose and there was overexpenditure of K58,000,517.
He said that the accounting staff involved in the scam had been dismissed and 17 of them were facing charges in the courts of law. [quote]
Mr Lombanya said that apart from facing the charges in courts, the Government was recovering the funds from the terminal benefits of the affected.
But Mr Milupi said that the money from the terminal benefits would not be enough.
He said the Government should instead institute civil litigations against the culprits as they had numerous properties which could be seized.
[ Times of Zambia]
Same disturbing issue of abuse of office every day, pa zed tuleya kwisa ?
We need more cleanups in government departments and parastatals
Thank you for exposing the irregularities.
A job well done.
but why sure….
lock them up!!! don’t just expose them
Thats why foreign Mining Companies like NFC(Chinese) do not want to deal with local suppliers. These local suppliers have made a lot of companies to lose a lot of money by selling “air’ ie non existing goods. Tatu yu mfwilako no luse that we are the ones who stand to lose once trust is lost.
Some hairstyles leave much to be desired for!
Well done guyz,Keep up the good work.We need people who can productive to the state not destructive.
All these scandals in the accounting profession.Where is ZICA so that they sort out these greedy chaps.ZICA should work to prevent the ENRON saga in Zed and not the way they are letting these greedy chaps do whatever they want with our money.Cage them and burn their papers for they wont work anywhere.
The Mwine says; u hav banned the wrong person check all my comments if want
Fashion Police i agree with you….That is sad news..more and more corruption pa zed..People in authority giving themselves contracts for thier fake companies..How does an honest person make it in Zambia sure?
This is so sad. And we are busy crying for development! Prosecute them so that this serves as a warning to other culprits. Manje hair style mama. Ni glitter fimo fimo nangu shani? Iyo yena…awe mama, naikanila ine!!
Good work we have been asking them to share but they refused keep them in cell bars
Ba Moze..how you brother..you alright?….hairstyle iyi naitinya mwe..if i was her hubby i would shave her head..lol
Manje hair style mama. Ni glitter fimo fimo nangu shani? Iyo yena…awe mama, naikanila ine!!
LOL…..*On the floor laughing.*
really sad news. as an accountant/auditor i feel hurt bcs its every accountant’s name that is being tarnished by these few individuals. Lock em up!!
Miss daisy, am alright my sister. You ladies need to come up with the Dos and Donts where fashion is concerned mwe. Unlike the media, you women need to regulate yourselves!!
Free market fimo fimo, just dont damage your ribs mudala!!
Free market fimo fimo, just dont damage your ribs mudala!!
Ba Moze, If I do, I will send you my medical bill.
It is hard to understand that in the 21 centuary, a country would still suffer from such scandals. It seems there is no limit to who handles government money in Zambia. How on earth can you have such a porous system?. How can this go unnoticed for a long time??. Shame, this actually means that there is so much corruption at everylevel in GRZ. This may even include the highest office.
these accountants saw a weakness in the system. am not trying to excuse them, the need to be prosecuted and punished. but going for the accountants wont help matters. the provincial permanent secretary and his team have to be brought in the net also. If money was meant for staff houses and no house was built, should you blame the accountants only? I think the PS who authorised the misappropriation of funds should also be held accountable. Problem is, he is a political appointee, so he walks free
Hey Sharp shooter Zica is only held liable for the offences commited by its members now what happens in Government the pipo they call Accountants, dont have accounting qualifications others are teachers or clerical officers we who are qualified and Zica members are not given chances
Anna in the picture does not either look competent!
spot on # 21, even the Auditor General just recently finished her professional paper ACCA.. the Majority of so called accountants in Government are nothing much to write home about. there are however, few good seeds who are ZICA members
Uubomba mwibala alya mwibala, da only way out of the crunch!
Even the dress does not look good.How can you put white on brown?She looks very racial.This is white brown sugar.
All Permanent Secretaries should explain themselves. They are either involved or been sleeping on duty. Are they the controllers? What then do they control.
#21(Dr Bill),If my memeory serves me better,a law was passed by parliament in response to the ENRON and Parmalat scandals wayback in 2002/3 somewhere there in which ZICA was to be the sole body to regulate and punish thieving accountants and that all Accountants serving in Zambia(be it privte or public have to be registered with ZICA).
Our country has money,but the handlers where the problem is.
this is the problem…small fish like iminsenga get caught up in the net but ama pirhannas bite thru the fish net and carry on swimming and visciously ravaging our economy..we heard that Nyama Soya wants to create a team to monitor ,evaluate govt performance but look , already ,competitively selected and qualified personnel at the US $24 million donor-funded Integrated Financial Management Information Systems (IFMIS) project have been axed by Dr Lewanika and replaced with civil servants who are easier to control and are already corrupt so will ignore some of the non performers and corrupt performers….and it gets more interesting…..as soon as this story starts making the rounds in lusaka and the ACC hear about it….fast fast Lewanika appointed to head our mission in Tokyo….nice one
#21.But then I have to agree with you when it comes to govt positions.Nepotism and political favouratism take centre-stage at the expense of qualified personnel and these are the results of elevating accounts clerks to positions of Accountant.
One wonders why the guys who works in Govt accounts sections tend to be rich. Even accounts clerks and office cleaners in accounts section have mansions which they cant account for. This has created a notion in the young ones that studying Accounts[ACCA, CIMA whatever u call them] is the way to go.
In Zambia there are very very few people/businesses that can account for their riches, most of the riches are acquired through dubious deals. Credits to a few clean hands out there.
Accountants & Bankers worldwide have lost their credibilty. What else do you expect in a capitalist system which rewards the debtor and punishes the saver?
Where is honesty and transparency to be found today? Not in Zambia, not in Africa, not in this world, not in this galaxy and not in this solar system! Maybe in Heaven.
iwe ka #22 cia…. wateva Miss Chifungula is not someone u r competent to speak loosely about ..She is competent ,morally upright and fit for the job.she has performed well being very qualified and got promoted to her position thru performance hardwork impatiality and excellence…from Auditor ,to Senior Internal Auditor right up to Chief Internal Auditor at MOFED.she was one of the first women to become a fellow of the ACCA and CIMA…so ifyo ulelanda ni shiki chabe. she looks presentable … and that whats important …better than rb ,tete nad all others .pray to God that u ever reach her level of morality competence and performance waumfwa ai!
#27. all accountants have to be registered with ZICA. the problem is not everyone working as an accountant is an accountant. so, if you are not an accountant, you wont be registed by ZICA, simple. like #21 has observed, others are just clerks, teachers, librarian, etc. working as accountants, they dont know what accountants’ professional ethics are and that there is even this creature called ZICA. on the other hand, ZICA is also very weak, these are jays who should have been ensuring that no one works as an accountant in Zwd if not registered. just pick an paper and check on the job Ads how many employers insist on ZICA registration as a MUST! Very FEW, SO?
Invetigation wings pa zed follow up and take Anna’s revelations seriously, we need to get a lot more of these ” big fish” thiefs and lock them up.
PACRO should be pro-active and work closely with banks and business houses to screen legitimate companies and sanction transactions involving large sums of money to save Zambia from total financial destruction.
# 36 walasa!
The bible says ‘you reap what you sow’ These are bad fruits of a broken down system. From Chiluba’s regime corruption detection and punity on offenders completely ceased, AG’s reports kept being igonred and when that happens, recovery takes long. with the current regime’s reluctancy to pick up recovery efforts started by LPM, we may as well continue to see things like this. sad indeed. But guys we can do something, i have a vision we can win, yes we will!! lets rise up and speak against graft. from 1,2, 10 people it can go to 100 & eventually 12million…viva transparency abash corruption for better zambia.
# 7,12,14,15 and 22…..would u rather have a very well dressed crook like Dora?
Awe nomba fyashupa ifintu mwe.
Money is the root of all evil. God help us!!!
#33 WALANDA BWINO.SOME CHAPS SPEAK FROM WITHOUT
These shameless pigs in the name of ‘Accountants’ should be punished. They deprived fellow workers decent homes. Above all , where are the controlling officers? This scam and others to come after 40dayz will dent the image of Accountants. Well done ANNIE.
Am disapointed and can’t believe the tantrum that people have over the auditor general who has brought this to light. We Zambians are too docile & ill informed about issues that affect our own affairs. We need to give this civil servant who holds a higher important office a thumbs up cause our institutions that are suppose to do the checks and balances and hold those accountable or those that abuse authority. Instead we become so petty when we shouldn’t really. We should be worried sick that the future we are creating for generations to come after us will bleak. Let’s all think through these issues critically and rise to the occassion as Zambians who want to see our country develop.
tu mukule kwati ba ku Congo DR
#34 walasa,ZICA needs to wake up.The reveallations at C’belt provincial office gives the picture of what i think will be the outcome of the 40 days and nights at ZNBC. Controlling Officers wake up. It time to work or maybe u r part and parcel!
Who will be buying booze if you lock them up ?
In Our country ,it’s either you are a corruptionist or a tyro.The appointments are not in good faith.Too much patronism.I dont know when this will come to an end.Most of the educated fellows have finished their degrees just to enrich themselves.Once educated, the poor are forgotten.
Dont just lock these accountants only. Also go for whoever was the controlling officer.
#20 you are right. These accountants had bosses and those bosses had bosses too and etc. The thing here is somebody up the ladders must have been accountable enough to ensure these jobs where carried out effectively and efficiently. How can you take out one maggot out of a rotten apple and expect the apple to become fresh again……..
This madam seems to be very hard working.Ever since she went into that office, a lot of misappropriations of funds have been revealed. But only one thing madam Anna.It doesnt mean that for people to know that you are honest,you have to dress ifya chabe chabe.You earn a lot of money madam.Have nice hair do and nice clothes. You should enjoy when you are working people please. Taking blogging on LT to an advanced Level.
NOT all accountants are dirty imwebantu! there are some(many) holy +clean chaps
Kadoyo are you a man?
The issue of Government Accounting is not adquately addressed in ACCA or CIMA. Having practiced and taught accounting at various academic levels, there is need to develop (in Zambia) a specialized Government Accounting System parallel to the professional ACCA/CIMA – which are designed purely for business entities. I am currently working for a State Department (USA) and has done specialized Government Accounting – it is a very complex area. Secondly, the Zambian accounting system, at government level lack adquate controls. You cannot have 1 person to prepare a payment voucher, authorize it and prepare a manual check (I mean hand written check). In some cases, the accountant can even case the check if the payee does not have a banke account. What do you expect!
#52 your equation does not apply to a Zambian Accountant.Try the inverse of it may be???
I usually hammer some spree with accountants.Their ambitions are just to be rich period.
Iwe Kadoyo that’s in an ideal set-up where your institutions that monitor such malpractices are in place. In Zambia there are either non-existant or simply weak to have any impact whatsoever. That’s what learned people say moral and society decay.
I agree with you 31.Most of these muppets employed as Accountants have never even sat an Accountancy exam in thier life yet they are offered these positions as accountants.To me the internal controls at most Government Organisations are to slack that they enable/encourage such fraud to occur. The culprits are the senior staff members who failed to check all disbursement of funds.How i wish i was given a position to run a Governments finance department i would revamp the whole system.I bet these guys dont even have a purchase order system in place to help them prevent this..
The issue here is not whether the guys are qualified or not, but that of abuse of office. Its happening even in other companies where chaps in supply have registered companies that supply nothing but are always getting fat cheques.
It appears there were no controls in place or the accounts chaps were a network from Finance Ministry. That is why it took long to uncover the scam. This problem will persist in GRZ Accounting Depts for years to come. Even how they recruit these guys nobody knows. The mess is all over the GRZ departments. For Clerk to have courage and steal public resources then the whole stealing starts from the top. It becomes difficult to discpline a junior when the senior is involved. Ms Ana Chifungula has a big task to clean the sysytem. Its a network right from Ministry of Finance to line ministries.
Nichekeleko ba Chifungo. Nili naka special hair salon in Kalingalinga and i also have image consultants too. Interested????
but why was the madam dressed like a witch doctor? anyway its good that way . . . she has even scared me just by her looks . . . i wont steal
Its scandals everywhere. Have you heard the 13hrs News. Ministry of Health Officials in K10 billion Scam. ACC is investigating and serious Hammers are currently parked at ACC. Nipa Zed indeed. Maybe we need to go the China route, if convicted for theft of public fund or corruption, penalty should be death sentence. Maybe, just maybe some sanity could be achieved
I have the following observations;
1. Theft has got nothing to do with qualification whether with Certificate, diploma, Degree etc someone can steal. 2. There are so many Institutions that provide Accounting qualifications other than ZICA such as NIPA, ECZ etc. So someone may not see any need to subscribe to ZICA unless there have information concerning registration and all implications. Its up to ZICA to tell pipo about benefits of registration otherwise those who have qualified from other Institutions may not see it necessary. Did you know that the difference between ACCA and NATECH is very minimal or that ZICA Prog may be more advanced?
It’s sad when people take advantage of their job positions at the expense of the country. I am glad that they unearthed their scam and hopefully they can be prosecuted by the law and given fair judgement.
I think accounting profession in Zambia is all about thieving. K10 billion at Ministry of health and the chap is freely stealing again at Ministry of Local Government and Housing. I suggested to one of the Ministers that his civil servants are the ones derailing the development of this country. Imagine Hammers, BMWs, Biologin Lexus,s e.t.c Lock them up and never release these criminals.
Striper come and stripe in Zed not in UK, we will pay you well here at home.
53 Hi Chewe. I am a Transvestite. Hope i don’t scare you honey. LOL
WE ARE NOT COMMENTING ON THE TEACHERS PLIGHT WHY? NO WONDER GRZ WILL NOT RESPECT THEM> WE BUSY TALKING ABOUT SCAMMERS>
#57 well have the learned people got any bright ideas about removing this morally decaying “apple” out of the Zambian society???
The Accounting profession requires alot of displine and self control if you are to excel well. Because its a very tempting career. So Plse GRZ accountants you are embarassing us. Do not join this career because you want to get rich faster you ‘ll be thrown out faster than you came.
Kadoyo are you there?Hellow!
Makawalala! why?
How can our country develop if everybody is stealing?
Mama Anna Chifungula, keep on unlocking these truths, it might help to rout the rot in many of our unchecked Accounting departments. A visit to Ndola Ministry of Eduction District and Provincial level Accounting depratments is most welcome. Inspectors, Headteachers and Teachers beg for signatures from accounting officers to claim their rightful leave, funeral settling in allowances. It would be ethical to include a Statutory which requires Accountants to declares their assets on employment
No.7 cant you see that the hair style goes with her face and the clothes she´s wearing!
#72 Hi Chewe, Sorry I had already left the site the time you posted your last post. Only access internet during day time as i will be busy working at night (hawker)
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