Auditor-General engages media

Source: Auditor-General engages media – NewsDay Zimbabwe

BY MTHANDAZO NYONI
THE Office of the Auditor-General (OAG) is conducting a media engagement workshop in Nyanga this week in a bid to create a better understanding of the office’s work and to build lasting synergies with the stakeholders.

The workshop will run for two days.

“My office will hold a one and half day media engagement workshop at Montclair Hotel in Nyanga from the 12th to the 13th of April 2022. The objective of the workshop is to create better understanding of my work and build lasting synergies with the stakeholders,” Auditor-General Mildred Chiri said.

OAG is an Independent office established under Audit Office Act (Chapter 22:18). The office is charged with the primary oversight or assurance role of ensuring accountability within the three arms of government (the legislature, the judiciary and the executive) as well as the constitutional commissions and independent office.

The Auditor-General is mandated to audit and report in respect to each financial year on the accounts of departments, institutions and agencies of government, all provincial and metropolitan councils and all local authorities, designated corporate board, statutory fund and other boards that have used public resources in discharging its functions.

Reports by Chiri have exposed a litany of gross accounting malpractices by government departments, parastatals and local authorities.

To address these malpractices, Chiri usually gives recommendations but the majority of them are not being implemented by public officials, resulting in re-occurrence of similar or identical irregularities.

For instance, according to the AG 2019 report, out of the 356 recommendations made by the AG in 2018, only 26% were fully implemented, 25% partially implemented and 49% were not implemented at all.

The same trend can be witnessed from the 435 recommendations made in 2017 where 25% were fully implemented; 19% partially implemented and 56% not implemented at all