High vacancy rate hits National Audit Office

Malawi’s Auditor General Stevenson Kamphasa has bitterly complained that a 43 per cent vacancy rate is crippling operations of the office.

Kamphasa said this on Wednesday when he appeared before a joint committee of parliament of the Public Accounts Committee and Budget and Finance committee during cluster meetings.

He said the National Audit Office has a total establishment of 397 posts at various grades of which 250 are technical posts.

“Out of technical posts, 107 are vacant, translating into a rate of 43 per cent,” he said.

He said in addition to shortage of human resources, National Audit Office also experiences inadequate skills and expertise.

Kamphasa said currently, only 20 per cent possesses relevant professional and academic skills.

“In order to reduce the problem of low levels of qualifications, National Audit Office has embarked on a holistic staff development approach by sending more officers for further training using its own initiative and resources,” he said.

He also said there is an arrangement to develop a comprehensive staff development plan which will be submitted to government for consideration.

Kamphasa also said the National Audit Office is currently using conditions of service which are applicable to the entire civil service, saying the current conditions are not supportive enough to attract and retain staff in an institution of this nature which requires rare skills.

He said the current process in the civil service is lengthy hence the office fails to engage potential job seekers from the market.

“In addition, the remuneration and incentives that are applicable in the same are not competitive enough to attract and retain such calibre of staff,” said Kamphasa.

The cluster meetings will run for two weeks.

Follow and Subscribe Nyasa TV :

Sharing is caring!