THE Office of the Auditor General has released the Audit report for the financial year ended December 31, 2006.
Public Relations Officer in the Office of the Auditor General Ellen Chikale confirmed in a statement made available to ZANIS today that the report, which was tabled before parliament on February 5, 2008, was submitted to the President on December 31, last year as per the constitutional requirement.
Ms Chikale said this years report has revealed that irregularities in the management of public funds has continued, with the worst being that of the misapplication of funds to the tune of K42, 885,707,241, which was followed by unaccounted for funds amounting to K22,053,976,602.
She also said other irregularities included unretired imprest-K18,585,086,881, unaccounted for stores-K14,992,700,535, unsupported payments-K12,647,491,376, delayed banking-K3,976,260,363, over payments-K1,756,258,571 and misappropriation revenue amounting to K85,714,710.
Ms Chikale further said the report also revealed unconstitutional expenditure amounting to K8,642,049,204 in respect of 23 heads of expenditure, which will require approval by parliament as provided for under article 1179(5) of the Republican Constitution.
She said the revenue component of the financial year under review revealed that there was a net deficit of K1,210,536,386,541 in the actual revenue collected at K6,990,018,969,806 against the estimated amount of K8,200,555,356,347.
Ms Chikale said the revenue collection comprised tax revenue and non tax revenue of which tax revenue is revenue from taxes such as income tax, mineral royalty tax, customs and exercise, Value Added Tax, among others, and non tax revenue is revenue from fees and fines such as traffic collections and ground rent.
She further said some irregularities in the collection and accounting of revenue in the audit report included tax arrears of K2,909 billion, tax refer-to drawer cheques K2.5 billion and unaccounted for non tax revenue of K4.5 billion.
Ms Chikale also said out of the tax arrears of K2, 909 billion, a sample of K1, 702 billion was picked for circularistion and 97 percent of this amount was disputed by institutions that owed the Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA).