By XAVIER MANCHISHI
ELEVEN missions abroad have been cited for various financial irregularities in the latest Auditor General’s report.
The Missions abroad cited in the Auditor General’s report include London, Lilongwe, Lubumbashi, Geneva, Dar es Salaam, Gaborone, Maputo, Windhoek, Brussels, Harare, Pretoria and Rome.
The Missions were cited for irregular payments, unsupported payments, failure to insure property, inadequately supported payments, unauthorised use of revenue and failure to follow procurement procedure.
Zambia’s High Commission in London was cited for 128 inadequately supported payments amounting to K1, 795,785 made during the financial year ending December 2013. The payments lacked support documents such as receipts and invoices.
The London mission also had K492, 600 issued to 55 officers which had not been retired by August last year.
The mission spent K466, 438 on gardening works at the official residence as well as electrical works worth K326, 644 but both amounts were above the mission‘s threshold.
The High Commission in London was cited for opening and closing Bank Accounts without authority from the Treasury, using locally engaged staff without authority and failure to remit revenue collection to the Treasury Account.
In Malawi, the Auditor General’s report revealed that the Third Secretary, Accounts, was irregularly paid education allowance in amounts totalling K7, 622, 933 for the period from October 2012 to June 2014.
The High Commission in Dar es Salaam was cited for drawing US$ 210, 456.83 from the revenue collections and spent on various activities without authority from the Secretary Treasury.
The mission also made wasteful expenditure when the First Secretary for Trade opted to stay in a rented house instead of the Government House No 517 Misaki which cost the High Commission K29, 072 in rentals.
Meanwhile, three GRZ diesel propelled motor vehicles belonging to the Public Service Management Division (PSMD) drew 500 litres of petrol, the latest Auditor General’s report has revealed.
The report revealed that the diesel propelled motor vehicles registration numbers GRZ231 BX, GRZ 205 CA and GRZ 715 BX drew the 500 litres of petrol amounting to K4, 569.
The report revealed similar irregularities at the Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit (DMMU) headquarters in Lusaka where 16 officers were paid fuel imprest amounting to K127, 036 instead of K69, 462 exceeding the fuel imprest by K57, 574.
The DMMU also did not fully pay the five seed suppliers engaged to deliver 3, 755. 92 metric tonnes of maize seed at a cost of K32, 293, 600 to the farmers who were affected by army worms during the 2012/13 farming season.
The suppliers were paid K19, 989, 663 out of the contractual amount of K32, 293, 600 which lead to the suppliers only delivering 1, 754.62 metric tonnes instead of 3, 755.92.
A test check on the price per tonne in the contract of MRI revealed that the company quoted an amount of K10, 772 per tonne but the company claimed the supply of 921.44 metric tonnes valued at K10, 66, 402 at the rate K11, 576 per tonnage resulting in over payment of K740, 727.
The DMMU also failed to inspect the maize seed supplied to Chipata District which led to failure to detect that out of the 162 tonnes of maize seed costing K1, 392, 884 supplied by MRI to Chipata, 23 tonnes were infected with weevils and large grain borers.