Cashgate report goes to Parliament Monday

The touchy and much awaited preliminary forensic audit report into the cashgate scandal is expected to be presented to Parliament tomorrow, Nation on Sunday has learnt.

The news comes amid reports of designs to sanitise the document by removing names of people behind the plunder of public resources.

A highly placed source at Parliament told Nation on Sunday today that the legislature received communication from government to begin preparing for meetings of the parliamentary Public Affairs Committee (PAC) to discuss the report.

“The Speaker has received communication that the audit report would be delivered to Parliament on Monday and preparations for the meetings are now underway. The Speaker has asked government to also provide funding for the meeting of PAC,” said the source.

According to the source, it costs around K12 million ($30 000) for PAC to meet for three to four days. As of today, it was not clear how long the forensic audit deliberations would take.

In an interview today, Speaker Henry Chimunthu Banda refused to comment on reports that Parliament is receiving the report tomorrow.

But Chimunthu Banda said once the report reaches Parliament, the institution will immediately call for a PAC meeting to scrutinise the document.

“PAC is the working arm of Parliament and will have to look at the report. Once the report is in, we will immediately call for meeting of PAC,” he said.