Malawi Auditor General leads SADC to first ever unqualified audit report

The Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) got its first ever unqualified audit report under the chairmanship of Malawi’s Auditor General Steven Kamphasa.

This came out Thursday afternoon when Kamphasa who is the Chairman of the Audit Committee of the 15 Member regional bloc, presented the 2015/2016 audit report of the SADC Secretariat’s finances as part of the 36th SADC Summit of Heads of State and Government in Mbabane, Swaziland.

In an interview after presenting his report, Kamphasa said that that during this reporting period, the Secretariat performed exceedingly well in that it followed up all set rules and procedures under internationally acceptable public service accounting standards.

“I am proud that during this period the Secretariat accounted for each and every cent that it was entrusted with and that my committee performed exceedingly well in following up performance of the Secretariat.

Even SADC’s various Development Partners were impressed with the performance and the oversight role provide by our Committee,” said Kamphasa.

Senior Officials of SADC who comprise Principal Secretaries applauded Kamphasa for the ‘commendable job’ and guidance provided to SADC in the usage and accounting of it finances.

For its operations, SADC depends on financing from Member States who were expected to contribute US$41.085 million and International Cooperating Partners who were expected to chip in with US$32.655 million for the 2015/16 period.

During his tenure, SADC has fully computerized its accounting system and adopted internal accounting standards leading to enhanced image, trust and faith emanating from the transparency and accountability that the systems have brought.

The Secretariat during this period also fully automated its Procurement Management System to address challenges such as long procurement cycle, quality of data, information access, compliance, and systems integration.

Kamphasa chairs the Committee whose membership comprises professionals from Lesotho, Seychelles, Mauritius, and Zambia.

Malawi took over chairmanship of the committee in 2015 and will hand over the chairmanship to Madagascar in 2017.

The Summit is being held under the theme ‘Resource Mobilisation for Investment in Sustainable Energy Infrastructure for an Inclusive SADC Industrialization and for the Prosperity of the Region.’

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