The Auditor General has given an adverse opinion to the accounts of Land Acquisition and Development Fund for the last four financial years from 2018 to 2021.
In its report tabled in the National Assembly this week, Julius Kandjeke observed that over 52 million dollars received as land tax income over these four financial years were not properly processed from the bank statements and land tax assessment documents.
The purchase of a farm to the value of N$7 934 422 in the 2018 financial year, the auditor general found, was wrongly disclosed in the financial statements of 2019. Furthermore, invoices amounting to over nine million dollars in 2017, 2018 and 2020 were wrongly recorded in subsequent financial years, as well as invoices paid after year-end amounting to 1.5 million dollars not recorded as liabilities at the end of the 2021 financial year.
In his comments, Kandjeke said that management should take all necessary steps to ‘’enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatements’’.
He warned that ‘’the risk of not detecting a material misstatement resulting from fraud is higher than for one resulting from error as fraud may involve collusion, forgery, intentional omissions, misrepresentations, or the override of internal control’’.
Kandjeke said he could not perform an audit on key performance information of the fund, further observing that it does not have a strategic plan and an annual plan of its own. ‘’The plans submitted were for the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Land Reform.’’ Therefore, the auditor general said, he could not form a conclusive opinion in this regard.
All the four financial years’ reports were submitted later than the due dates to the office of the Auditor General, it is stated.
