THE 2014 Auditor General (AG)’s report on accounts of parastatal bodies and other statutory institutions has revealed that the Road Development Agency (RDA) invested K3 million from operational funds without obtaining Treasury authority.
According to the report, this is contrary to Section 22 (1), and (2) and (3) of the Public Finance Act number 15 of 2004.
The Act states that monies standing to the credit of the republic in the Treasury account or any other bank account and not required for any purpose may be authorised to be invested by the Secretary to the Treasury with a bank.
This must be at call or subject to notice not exceeding 12 months or in any of the investments authorised by law for the investment of trustee funds.
The report has also revealed that amounts totalling K68,800 were paid to the board chairperson as sitting allowances for board meetings during the period December 26, 2012 to July 7, 2013 despite not having a substantive board in place.
“Contrary to the provisions of the Act, RDA operated without a board during the period from January 2012 to December 2013 as only the chairperson was in place. In addition, although other board members were appointed in December 2013, as of November 2015, there was no representation from the Attorney General’s chambers,” it reads.
The audit report further reveals failure by the RDA to avail contract detail involving the partitioning and installation of air conditioners.
It states that there was no contract availed for audit scrutiny for the partitioning of the office block and, therefore, the total contract sum could not be established.
The audit report also revealed irregular sales of motor vehicles to officers at the agency.
These include the director and chief executive officer (CEO), former CEO, senior engineer, procurement manager and a former director and CEO.
“During the period under review, five motor vehicles purchased at a total cost of K3,697,611 and used for periods ranging between one and 21 months were sold to five officers at prices in amounts totalling K751,503.
“In this regard, the decision to sell the vehicle at such reduced prices for vehicles purchased at very high costs and used within such short periods was against the conditions of service and, therefore, irregular,” the report reveals.
Auditor general is the only sane civil servant in the PF government. Lun gu and the rest are corrupt to the core.
There is the PF and Sata legacy much talked about by PF supporters. This party is all about stealing and borrowing.
Not surprising. PF and Edgar Lungu are a failed entity. When Lungu said he had no vision, we should have listened. Let him got and rest in August
These thefts are almost nothing when considering how dead Nsanda’s bedroom was found to have millions of dollars and sterling. The Super thefts were the kickbacks Nsanda and Sata orchestrated from State House with Chinese and other contractors. The Auditor General’s work is shallow and superficial. The real work to be audited is how an average kilometre of Zambian Roads is so expensive to construct. Zambia is a kleptocracy.
#ChagwaMustFall
The people responsible for this mess are all dead.
It’s a shame that whilst all these irregularities are taking place, our leaders have buried their heads in the sand and pretend that all is well. It really pains me that this country has no hope of redemption. Those charged with responsibility of presiding over government business are only interested in illegally fattening their pockets at the expense of the masses most of whom live in abject poverty. Our current leadership has already demonstrated that they are not interested in bringing economic change; corruption has become endemic everywhere especially at State House. And HH, whom so many people are pinning their hopes is part of the people that have misappropriated funds that were meant to be paid to 240 retrenched British Petroleum (BP) Zambia employees 20 years ago. What hope is…
Stop voting wrong people in critical Government position such as President. as long as you vote wrongly you will keep crying and poverty will always be your bedfellow.
Whats the point of publishing these Audit reports if no action is taken against the culprits? These reports just make people angry because no follow up report will be published as to whether the amounts misappropriated were recovered, accounted for or the people responsible made accountable for their corruption.
Nsanda is dead.
i couldnt agree with you more
Should such skullduggery at RDA surprise anyone? It’s just a tip of the iceberg anyway as it (the audit) didn’t extend to the selling of road tenders to Chinese Contractors by the powers that might have been. You had a monkey in charge of the maize field (MHSRIP). Why would you expect any surprises?
I assume RDA is still under state house since the time MC Sata made that decision. So all this is happening right before state house. Someone must be accountable for this, this is people’s hard earned money being stolen. Very unacceptable.
Auditor General, please extend your swift audits to ZESCo, Zambia Railways, ZAMTEL & all these major parastatals. No one should go scot free, someone must be accountable.
We also want to hear how the Auditor General’s office spends money as-well. Someone must Audit them so that they are included in Auditors report.
If the Auditor General was professional this rot would have stopped a long time ago. They are saying this about RDA because the man who was incharge during the period under review is dead. Why can’t they do the same on Zamtel, Zesco, NAPSA, ERB, ZICTA, ZR, NATSAVE. If they are not bribeb too to keep quiet they should demonstrate their professionalism by availing the nation similar reports about these other parastatals.Its not a hidden thing of what goes on in these parastatals. ACC also does not help matters. If we want Zambia to be like USA, BRITAIN OR JAPAN in social and economical development, then we should deal with corruption.
Forget. In Zambia people sleep, breathe and eat corruption. Just look at the faces of people you meet at the port of entry if you are from outside the country. Corruption and stealing are written on their faces. Ask yourself as to the major cause of economic quagmire the country is facing. Isn’t corruption?
The country can secretly contract a loan of $192mn but the president does not want that disclosed to the nation. Forget about Zambia developing. Just sell the country and get your share of the money and leave.
Lungu is corrupt. Do you think he’ll do anything about it when he is a beneficiary?Forget. More will be stolen. Just take your Bp drugs as you read through.
For noting not action
good riddance the thief died..thank you God
Which thief the illiterate dictator or the chairman without a board?
Imagine a chairman without a board..both thieves are gone leaving our children in debt thats the Zambian story.
kabova@ from today you are my friend. The problem with this country is that pipo who should be in prison are our heros. How can pipo stop stealing if we can praise and worship thievs however good they might be. if my child asks me how HH got wealth and became president do you think my child will not steal if he wants to be president?
Assage
You will never understand how HH got his wealth until you go to school and study economics and specialise in portfolio management.
For now, you are allowed to show your ignorance while your PF leaders have come to realise that HH genuinely made his money in a transparent manner as a worker for Grant Thornton.
The fact is that Valentine Chitalu is the one who handled the cash raised from privatisation. Chiluba, Sata and other MMD guys shared the money from privatisation as shown by the government records.
VIVA UPND the party of choice 2016.
I have stopped taking Zambia’s Auditor General’s report seriously. For how long are we going to hear about irregularities and misapplications with no consequence? Or is there some information that we are not told about the efficacy of these reports? Thieves are rewarded, fraudsters pardoned, and mediocrity installed as leaders. What a messed up set up we really have! When can we see normalcy? Or is there something we really must know about our governance that we are missing???? So many questions I just give up like the Auditor General’s report and swim with the so-called requirements.
The AG is impotent this is just the tip of the iceberg…this why old man Sata and Willy moved it to Sata house to plunder; saying millions have been misappropriated is a sick joke in itself when billions have disappeared through overpriced contracts..if we had educated MPs we would have empowered the AG instead of them merely interested in their sitting allowances.
The issue of financial irregularities will not end anytime soon in Zambia. This unfortunately has been a trend and growing over time and widespread now. It has now metamorphosed into a culture. It is a case of a bad habit becoming a norm. In many instances, these acts are being pepertrated by very educated people. They even form cooperatives in these government departments with the sole purpose of swindling. It is common now to see workmates hanging out in mobs. Do you expect them to do something transparently? I think not!! Morally we have become inept.
Ex-CEO Bernard Chiwala is still alive and must be made to account for his actions. The money Nsanda was paid erroneously must be recovered from his Estate. Every public Ngwee must be accounted. That’s taxpayers’ money.
Nothing erroneous in that payment my brother, it is the way these people live as criminals.
They can’t even live long enough to enjoy the plunder…… What a shame!!!
For now Merge the office of the AG,Police fraud unit,Anti corruption commision and DEC.What is your opionion Ba TPIZ ?Transparent fimo fimo.There was a Task force on corruption it never yeilded anything rather it was just another Spent force.
Don’t forget to audit ZISC……The chief culprit wage freeze for years no negotiations just getting an “allowance” that is not audited…they fired hardworking Grace to bring in some suspect MD with a track record worse than those in chimbokalila
@Kabova and Assage we have told these UPND cadres that HH is not the right person to rule this country, they say we are jerlousy of him, that man has a lot skeletons in the wadrobe but they dont understand. He has brain washed them to the extent of believing what ever he says, he has shares and sits on the board of Zambezi Sun hotel the company he evaluated and advised govt to sell cheaply because he had an interest in buying shares what does that amount to, is it not corruption?
Manic,
The topic is about PF stealing, pleas don’t diverge.
I thought the audit report involved “technical audits” that could have brought in quantity surveyors and other experts to look at the cost of road construction in relation to real costs and ascertain why our road construction is one of the highest in the world despite our country being relatively flat,with good soils in most parts (less sand and marshes)! What they are writing about here is “small money”!
The report simply shows the carelessness of late president SATA and as an accomplice to all the plunder. Ati St Michael imwe bantu. RDA was directly under his nose as supervisor. Its shame bane. More will be known after August once PF are kicked out. The corruption of MMD was a child’s game compared to this loot taking place right now.
It’s so funny that he did that just after declaring he was allergic to corruption , maybe that’s what killed him …. constantly touching things he was alergic to.
The Auditor Generals office has no teeth or mandate to prosecute the many thieves in govt. run institutions. This rot would have stopped if they erring officers were taken to court and jailed. There is always strong evidence to that effect. There is massive looting in govt. corridors or offices. Its no longer a hidden secret. These officers have build mansions etc. all over Lusaka and yet their annual income is well known. How do they make money to acquire such wealth within a short period of time?
1. Has the move to have RDA directly under State house yielded much for the general public, that uses roads constructed out of the KALOBA Zambia has contracted or it has fattened the pockets of the few Zambian who usually use air transport? 2. Do GVT institutions of such magnitude have Lawyers as employees or even consultants on how to proceed with their operations, seeing that Institutions (ought to) work under the laid down procedures guided and protected by the law? 3. What assurance is there that proceedings to have perpetrators be prosecuted will commence this yr? 4. Should there be a change of GVT after august 11, should bringing to book and recover the misapplied funds from everyone involved, dead or alive, be considered to be witch hunting?
I have always known about PF thieves
The bond moneys are in their pockets