Losing money in Govt officers' style

Government is losing a lot of money through unretired imprest by employees. The latest Auditor general's Report reveals that K24 billion (US$4,800,000) was lost in 2007 through unretired imprest.

Zambia's parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) heard May 18 that K24 billion given to officers in various Government departments as imprest in 2007 was not retired. Auditor-General, Anna Chifungula informed Parliament's oversight committee when Secretary to the Treasury, Likolo Ndalamei appeared before the committee to be questioned on the issue.

PAC Chairperson Charles Milupi said the Public Accounts committee observed with sadness that there was no control in Government departments especially where imprest was concerned because the issue kept being captured by the Auditor-General in her report every year. He said K24 billion is too large an amount for Government officers not to retire but instead turn such imprest into cheap loans to be recovered over a long period of time. He cited Western Province as one such province where there is a “total” collapse in the accounting system with too much connivance among officers.

“In Western Province, officers are conniving amongst themselves regarding imprest and the system has collapsed. They come here to tell us that recoveries are being made from salaries, but when you check the payroll, you find that this is not even reflecting,” Milupi said.

He said in some cases controlling officers were part of the connivance, the situation becomes worse because then there is no one to save the situation.

And Ndalamei said it was unfortunate that even senior officers such as controlling officers were sometimes failing to retire imprest. He requested that the committee avail him with a copy of the responses made by controlling officers from Western and Southern provinces where audit queries for 2007 have been serious. He said his office is working at sealing all loopholes and that all officers found wanting will be dealt with accordingly.