Procrastination is a thief. It robs people of the opportunity to timely act on issues.
By the time one decides to do the needful— that is, acting on an issue— it could be too late to redeem the situation.
Surprisingly, some wise people— people who breath figures, think figures, eat figures, drink figures, sleep figures, sit figures— have bettered their art at procrastination.
I am talking about the people that prepare audit reports in this country. What best describes their late-coming than producing an audit report that covers the year 2021.
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If the year 2021 has a scent— real scent and not the scent of the mind, which I call memories— it [the scent] would have been stolen by the winds long ago. It [the scent] would, worse still, have been swept away by tropical cyclones Ana and Gombe-induced rains and the corresponding floods.
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After all, these storms made landfall in Malawi in January and March 2022, long after those that spend public funds recklessly at Capital Hill did so.
If cyclones Ana and Gombe failed to ‘kill’ the scent by simply washing it away, then Tropical Cyclone Freddy would have done it. As one of the worst cyclones in recent memory, Freddy would have swept away the mess in the unforgiving floods it induced or the tree-bending winds it came with.
Such is the danger of letting time lapse, otherwise known as procrastination.
As such, procrastination was supposed to be such a bad, stinky, nauseating thing.
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Yes, procrastination was supposed to be a folly Malawians ridicule at every turn.
But, then, because Malawi is a land of the lake and perplexities, nothing surprises me anymore.
Take, for instance, the timing of the release of audit reports in Malawi. Sometimes, audited reports are released two years late. Sometimes, five years late. At times, a year-and-a-half late.
But late is late.
Just imagine, in 2023, getting a report of accounts of the government for the year ended June 30 2021.
Come to think of it; every year, instead of reading about solutions to yester-year’s problems, reading about new problems that resemble those of the previous year and 20 years before.
Well, your guess is as good as mine because, again, this is what has happened in the audit report.
It is tackling the same, old issues. I mean, issues such as government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) failing to account for public funds.
I am referring to issues such as misreporting, financial irregularities, overpayment, overcharging, missing documents and [issues of] funds not being accounted for, as presented in the report.
Just imagine, the issue of failure to account for funds cropping up again.
The report indicates, for instance, that MDAs collectively failed to account for K96.8 billion in the financial year ending June 30 2021.
The report cites State residences, which had unliquidated funds totalling K5 billion; the Malawi Defence Force, which could not account for K1 billion; and Parliament, where K207 million of expenditure could not be unaccounted for, among the culprits.
But, then, I am not optimistic on prospects of the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament doing something about it.
Every year, all they know is talk, talk, talk and talk.
Not just talk; those in the committee like moving around, in the name of appreciation visits, when the real issue is allowances.
Peddle allowances in front of parliamentary committee [any parliamentary committee] members and you have their hearts.
Maybe I can hope for the best. We have a substantive Auditor General in town.
This is because, on Wednesday, Parliament unanimously confirmed Thomas Makiwa as Auditor General.
Makiwa received support from both sides of the august House, including the Public Appointments Committee, through a report presented by its chairperson Joyce Chitsulo.
Normally, the Auditor General is confirmed through a secret vote but, due to the support that his confirmation got, leader of the House Richard Chimwendo Banda moved a motion that Makiwa be confirmed using a voice vote.
So, maybe, things will change— for the better.
