At least 229 vehicles belonging to the Ministry of Health and Social Services cannot be accounted for, Auditor General (AG) Junias Kandjeke says.
According to the chief auditor, the ministry’s executive director Ben Nangombe informed the AG’s officials that it owns 1 876 vehicles.
However, the master list of all vehicles owned by the ministry indicated that it had 1 647 vehicles, resulting in an unexplained difference of 229 vehicles.
“This matter was reported in the previous report and no improvement was observed,” Kandjeke said in the 2019/20 audit report of the ministry.
The report was recently submitted to the National Assembly (NA) for scrutiny, and according to it, Nangombe blamed their failure to account on COVID-19.
“The accounting officer (executive director) indicated that the ministry has noticed the discrepancy and intends to engage in a countrywide verification process. This process has been hampered by the COVID-19 pandemic and was postponed until the situation stabilises,” reads a section of the report.
More so, the ministry wrote off 75 vehicles worth N.dollars 4.6 million during the audit period.
The COVID-19 explanation notwithstanding, the ministry has been reporting inaccurately before the advent of pandemic.
Kandjeke lashed out at Nangombe in the report.
“The accounting officer (Nangombe) has been reporting inaccurate information on hand for the past five years, in respect of the total number of vehicles owned by the ministry. The accounting officer should ensure that this matter receives urgent attention to rectify the number of vehicles on hand and should also provide correct information for audit purposes,” Kandjeke said.
During the audit, Kandjeke’s officers also picked up that ministry spent N.dollars 47 million without Treasury approval. This is a direct contravention of the State Finance Act.
“It is recommended that the accounting officer should closely monitor and review the financial position of the ministry on a continuous basis to enable better financial control and take appropriate action timeously to avoid unauthorised expenditure,” Kandjeke said.
Source: The Namibian Press Agency
