If forensic investigation reports were a road, that road would have been riddled with potholes and other blemishes. Why? Because it would have been a used, and abused, road. Of course, forensic investigation reports are not roads.
However, I am often prompted to compare such reports to roads, more so because, to those at the Auditor General and Accountant General offices, this [the audit report thing] is akin to familiar territory.
This is because every year, someone is auditing some government ministry, department and agency.
And, despite doing the needful— that is, taking to the money trail— results of such exercises are released two or three years later, which makes follow-up difficult.
Take, for instance, the ‘latest’ report into the use of public funds at the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Institute (Smedi).
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In the first place, the report is for the period between July 2018 and June 2023 and was conducted by the National Audit Office to investigate the organisation in areas of financial statements, assets, human resource and procurement management and malpractices.
According to findings of the report, Smedi failed to follow procurement procedures in its dealings. For instance, the report says the chief executive officer chaired and participated in activities as member of the Internal Procurement and Disposal Committee between August 2018 and June 2019 and that procurements worth K194,507,126.08 were approved for payments;
It further says irregularities in the procurement of raw materials for a leather design studio were noted, singling out the use of single source method in the procurement of raw materials; use of informal markets to pay a Zimbabwe-based supplier of raw materials amounting to $5,764.35, which eventually resulted into wasteful expenditure amounting to K4, 324,851.90 and delivery of shoe buckles that were not in tandem with specifications.
Maybe I should let the report talk for itself: “The head office was purchased at K320,000,000 without comprehensive assessment before purchase and later extra payment of K12, 000,000.00 was irregularly paid to the seller as a cost of the air conditioners and the genset [generator set] which were part of the same house. Additionally, Smedi incurred extra expenditure amounting to K37,430,789.07 without approval of the board. This expenditure was made to the house suitable for an office and could have been avoided if thorough assessment was done before the purchase of the house,” the report reads.
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The report also mentions mismanagement of assets as the CEO underpaid for the purchase of personal-to-holder motor vehicle number BU7780 by K2,524,960.02. According to the report, Smedi also disposed of a Mitsubishi Rosa minibus at K5,600,000 without the involvement of the department of Plant and Vehicle Hire and Engineering Services to determine its reserved price, which was set at K5,000,000.00; and proceeds of the bus were used without approval of the Board of Trustees and were not accounted for.
It further says Smedi did not update financial statements in the system after audit and this made the figures from the system and audited financial statements not to agree. It puts it this way: “Revenue reported to the Secretary to the Treasury was grossly under reported by K2,494,857,969 and some revenue reported in the Management Accounts did not have supporting source.
“Some fuel cash sales amounting to K26,544,360.16 through prepaid customers and funds meant for procurement of motor vehicles amounting to K270,000,000.00 could not be accounted for,” the report indicates, further showing that some members of staff were treated so unfairly by management that they were compelled to resign without being confirmed after working for over 36 months.
Of course, Smedi Chairperson Henry Chete has said when the new board came in, its members noticed that some systems were not working. He has cited the Finance Department as one of the places where some systems were not working. What he means is that there was information that was either wrong and could not make sense or could not be produced at all.
“We, as a board, therefore hired the National Audit Office to carry out a forensic audit at the organisation. And, indeed, when the report was presented to the board, it turned out that there were cases of financial mismanagement and violation of some laid down processes and procedures including the Terms and Conditions of Service of the organisation. At the moment, the board is working on fixing these issues,” Chete is on record to have said.
Now, what is my take on this? We have been on this path before but, sadly, such reports have become a ritual; they are released for the sake of it. In fact, I have the impression that those who release the reports do so to show that they are working when, in fact, they are just hoodwinking us into believing that something is happening on the ground.
The truth is, nothing ever happens in this country. All people do is walk in familiar territory and, a day or two later, each and every one forgets about it.
This, Dear Pain, is the pain of being Malawian.
