Parliament has urged the government to fully capacitate the Auditor-General’s office by committing at least 1% of the 2023 national budget towards its operations so that it can operate as an independent institution.
Finance and Economic Development minister Mthuli Ncube allocated $9.9 billion against a bid of $25.3 billion to AG’s office for 2023, which translated to 0.6% of the national budget.
The 2023 budget was passed by Parliament last week without any significant changes to allocations.
A post-budget report by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said AG’s office was paramount as it scrutinised the effectiveness of government financial systems and the level of compliance with financial policies and guidelines.
Legislators said underfunding could compromise the effectiveness of the Auditor General’s office to carry out its oversight function. Read in part the PAC report seen by NewsDay:
The independence of the audit office is partly guaranteed by enabling it to perform its mandate fully and this is achievable if adequate resources are made available. It should be noted that audit offices, the world over, have a responsibility of assisting governments to better manage scarce public resources in a transparent manner and to achieve their set objectives.
Our audit office has performed well in the past and deserves the necessary budgetary support to help it keep on fulfilling its constitutional mandate.
Legislators said throughout the PAC’s analysis of the AG’s reports, it had noted with concern that there was low coverage by the audit office due to a lack of resources.
PAC said AG’s reports pointed out that some foreign stations and embassies had gone for many years without being audited thereby presenting great risks to public finance management.