Obrein Simasiku
The Auditor General Junius Kandjeke has flagged the Ministry of Health and Social Services for the recurrence of missing vehicles for the past five years, despite efforts and measures to seal the loopholes. This is after the AG uncovered that from a total of 1888 ministry fleet, 241 cannot be accounted for, a situation he says, has been recurring for the past five years, while another issue of incompetence involves that of an employee who resigned in August, but still managed to process 76 transactions amounting to N$1 565 487.
“The master list of all vehicles owned by the ministry indicated 1647, this has resulted in an unexplained difference of 241. This matter was reported previously but seems there is no improvement. The accounting officer has been reporting inaccurate information on vehicles. Therefore, 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,” said Kandjeke in his audit report on the ministry for 2020/21 financial year.
The ministry has written off 28 vehicles valued at N$2 204 400, whereas 73 accidents were reported costing N$1 693 917 in repairs. “However, only 39 were repaired to a tune of N$1 497 434.’’
Regarding the transactions processed by an ex-employee, he said, the matter happened because he was still active on the ministry of finance Integrated Financial Management System (IFMS). The transactions were processed between 17 August and 21 September 2020. The AG thus recommended that the accounting officer segregates powers to avoid such further incidences.
Furthemore, it is reported, that 24 duplicate payments were made to suppliers, amounting to N$155 533. “The accounting officer indicated that double payments were as a result of multiple codes allocated to individual suppliers. The Ministry has requested companies that were double paid to refund and provide proof of payment. Also the finance ministry has been engaged to clean up the system on double supplier accounts on database,” said Kandjeke, while warning the ministry to put measures in place to curb such activities.
The AG further found that the ministry had N$5 052 504 in a suspense account, as well as N$1 345 531, to which he urged the responsible persons to make sure that reconciliations are made. Moreover, the Ministry was found to have over spent its budget by N$366 546 308, in unauthorised expenditure.
This resulted after one project for rehabilitation of Etegameno rehabilitation and resource centre upgrading could not take off as the quantity surveyor could not deliver on, despite all documentation done for tendering.
