Act on audit exposes – TIZ
Written by Millennium on June 7, 2019
SANFROSSA MANYINDA writes
@SunZambian
LACK of tangible follow-ups and prosecution of possible cases of mismanagement of public resources exposed by the Auditor General’s report is worrying, Transparency International Zambia (TIZ) has said.
The non-governmental organisation said the lack of action by law enforcement wings of the government had made the people mismanaging public resources to take advantage of the complacency.
ITZ executive director Wesley Chibamba said the indifference by the government law enforcement wings towards audit issues was emboldening the perpetrators to continue mismanaging public resources.
Mr Chibamba said in Lusaka on Tuesday the situation was unfortunate because it increased poverty by personalising resources meant for public service delivery.
He was speaking during a meeting with civil society organisations.
“Hospitals do not have sufficient funds, many children in rural areas are unable to access education due to lack of schools, shortage of teachers and there are limited health centres and yet the amounts being mismanaged are colossal to improve the lives of the citizens,” Mr Chibamba said.
He said the civil society should play its role in ensuring that citizens were mobilised to take keen interest and demand accountability in the way public resources were being managed.
Mr Chibamba said there was a need to provide members of the public with information about what the audits reflected and make it accessible.
This, he said, would make it easy for the people to know how their resources were being used and demand accountability from those who were entrusted to manage their resources.
Mr Chibamba said TIZ had started a project aimed at increasing accountability in the management of public resources.
He said huge amounts of money lost or mismanaged were reflected in various audits over the years showed a gloomy picture considering that Zambia’s poverty levels were still high and the economy was in stress.
“The lost resources as reflected in the audit reports show that there is a great opportunity cost to develop Zambia and massively reduce the levels of poverty if these resources were not personalised and mismanaged.
