PAC clears politicians on mismanagement

The parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is clearing political figures in various ministries of wrong doing pertaining to reports of embezzlement and financial mismanagement.

This is one of the findings by the committee based on the report of the Auditor General on the accounts of the government of the Republic of Malawi for the year ending, June 30, 2021.

According to PAC chairperson Mark Botoman, ministers who are political figure heads are not involved in most of financial deals, financial report filing and book balancing as well as procurement processes arguing such operations are done by controlling officers and other technocrats.

Botoman further indicates that controlling officers are supposed to play advisory roles to ministers for smooth running of the ministries.

“The owners of the ministries are controlling officers who are responsible for the daily running of affairs while ministers are responsible for policy direction and not vice-versa,’’ said Botoman.

Meanwhile, the PAC chairperson is reprimanding some controlling officers who he observes are failing to exercise prudence in the expenditure of public finances despite the country facing numerous economic hardships which are crippling service delivery.

Among the critical areas that controlling officers are accused of failing to do in the line with their duties, according to Botoman, are contracts management irregularities, revenue management irregularities, procurement management irregularities and failure to submit relevant documents for audit review.

While the report has been presented and submitted to Parliament for possible action, Botoman is calling for quick interventions on how ministries, department and agencies can well be run while achieving their goals of providing proper service delivery to Malawians.

Soon, the committee will start scrutinising the Auditor General’s reports on the accounts of the government of Malawi for the year 2022 before the compilation of a report on the same which will also be presented in Parliament during the next meeting.