By CATHERINE NYIRENDA –

THE Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has heard that K283,324 was paid in Muchinga Province for incomplete works on a Government rest house in Chinsali District.
Additionally, the new province has recorded unretired imprest amounting to K37,616 in the 2012 Auditor General’s report.
The committee has since expressed concern that the newly created Province is being cited in the 2012 Auditor General’s Report for financial irregularities in its infancy.
This was when Muchinga Province Permanent Secretary Bwalya Ng’andu appeared before the Committee to answer audit queries on unretired imprest amounting to K37,616 issued to nine officers and an uncollected vehicle from a private garage which was paid K123,000 for repairs.
Other audit queries included the down payment of K283,324 on a contract for incomplete works of a Government rest house in Chinsali and the payment of K489,510, for the drilling of 14 boreholes, without indicating the actual site and contract duration.
The report stated that as of March 2013, the contractor had drilled nine out of the 14 boreholes and was paid K313,560 leaving a balance of K175,950 but that the boreholes were non functional.
PAC chairperson Vincent Mwale said it was wrong for a newly created province to be cited for financial irregularities when most provinces were reducing on such audit queries.
“It is not right as a new province to be cited for audit queries and yet we have officers, who have been transferred to the province and have been in the system for a long time and know the financial regulations very well. Our aim is to have zero audit queries by 2016,” Mr Mwale said.
MMD Lunte Member of Parliament (MP) Felix Mutati advised Dr Ng’andu to guard against wastage of public funds by civil servants.
Mr Mutati said this when he questioned the Permanent Secretary on why the province made two payments for the erecting of four pumps to two different suppliers worth K52,000 and K19,000 respectively.
“You need to curb these financial irregularities that have already started crippling in the province,” Mr Mutati said.
Dr Ng’andu assured the Committee that he would ensure that the province did not appear before them to answer audit queries next year.
He told the Committee earlier that the province had started recovering unretired imprest from officers’ salaries, with so far K27,000 recovered, while the process to recover the remaining balance was on going.
He told the Committee that he had written to the Public Service Management Division to effect deductions of the money from the officers in question outrightly and not on a gradual process.
This was after Alliance for Democracy and Development (ADD) MP Mulumenui Imenda raised concern on how the deductions were being done as civil servants were deliberately misusing funds knowing that the deductions would be treated as soft loans.
Dr Ng’andu said on the down payment of K283,324, to a contractor for the rehabilitation of the Government rest house at the contract sum of K361,533, the administration had written to the Attorney General to see how they could pursue the contractor to pay back the remaining amount from the works the contractor did not undertake.
Dr Ng’andu explained that the contract was terminated as the contractor failed to meet the mandate of the undertaking.
He also told the committee that of the K123,000 paid to Pilatus Engineering for the repairing of the vehicle, K14,000 was paid for the general service, while K109,000 was paid to replace the engine for the same vehicle.
He said at the time of auditing, the boreholes in question were not working because of the faulty hand pumps which have since been repaired.