Nsanje District Council engages partners on cleared K842m audit queries
Nsanje District Council has started engaging its development partners in the district on the outcome of the audit queries amounting to K842 million from the Auditor General’s office in the spirit of promoting good governance.
The fficials, including chiefs’ representative, financial service committee member and the council chairperson engaged journalists in the district recently to explain audit queries.
Some quarters of the district thought the funds had been misappropriated.
Speaking to the media, Nsanje District Council Chairperson, Andrew Piriminta disclosed that the council was cleared for any wrong doing by both the National Audit Office (NAO) and the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament on the claimed funds said to have been misappropriated by the district council.
“We have started engaging partners in the district, starting with you the media so that you understand the current situation regarding the audit queries from 2015 to 2018 financial years. As we are speaking to you, all the queries were cleared except four.
“We provided all the necessary documents to the NAO upon being requested and we did the same with the PAC.
“Therefore, we cannot continue accepting accusations of the said abuse of over K800 million which we were cleared of. So, as Nsanje District Council, we are dispelling the allegations over the abuse since our hands are clean,” Piriminta said.
Piriminta said all the partners, including Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), will be engaged to appreciate the fact that the queries were resolved or cleared.
He said the district risks losing some development projects due to the said allegations as potential investors may be hesitant to be associated with such abuse.
“We want to engage everyone in the district so that they understand fully on our clearance by the two different entities. After this meeting, we will now have an audience with the CSOs for them to appreciate how the audit queries were cleared.
“We do not want our district to get paralysed just because someone is communicating false information regarding the audit queries,” added Piriminta.
Acting District Commissioner for Nsanje, Ellen Bikoko, concurred with Piriminta, saying NAO and PAC cleared the council of the outstanding audit queries for three fiscal years, from 2015 to 2018.
“We can admit that we have only four audit queries which are yet to be cleared, including those of contractors charging Value Added Tax without remitting it to Malawi Revenue Authority,” Bikoko said.
Nsanje CSOs Network Chairperson, Mike Dansa, said the clearance was a welcome development for the district.
Follow and Subscribe Nyasa TV :