Holding on to forensic audit report to fuel speculation—CSOs

Malawians will have to wait longer before the forensic audit report into plunder of public resources at Capital Hill is released for public consumption after the National Audit Office (NAO) on Tuesday announced a further delay.

In the meantime, civil society organisations (CSOs) through the Grand Coalition have reacted angrily to the latest development and asked Malawians to choose wisely during the May 20 Tripartite Elections, arguing the current government is taking citizens for granted.

NAO had earlier announced Tuesday, February 18, as the day Auditor General Stephenson Kamphasa would present the report to Minister of Finance Maxwell Mkwezalamba who would then release it to the public.

However, NAO communications officer Thomas Chafunya said in a statement yesterday that the release would delay further to ensure that the report meets international standards.

Reads the statement signed by Chafunya: “The delay is a result of the need to ensure that the forensic audit report meets the International Standards on Auditing as promulgated in the International Standards on Supreme Auditing Institutions enforced by the International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions of which Malawi Audit Office is a member.”

These standards, according to NAO, would ensure that the report is clear to every reader without needing further explanation.

To meet these standards, Chafunya said, the Auditor General made comments and observations which he resubmitted to the forensic auditors to finalise the report.

Auditors were expected to submit the report to Mkwezalamba yesterday in line with Section 184 (2) of the Constitution, but this will be delayed further.

It is only after the report is resubmitted that it would be forwarded to the Minister of Finance.

Chafunya did not immediately have a new date for the report to be submitted to the minister, but all indications are that the minister would only be able to make it public when Parliament meets in April.

CSOs Grand Coalition chairperson Voice Mhone said in an interview the delay may create room for more speculation that government is doctoring the forensic audit report.

He said: “This government cannot be trusted anymore. The same action plan they agreed to, they are failing to follow through and we cannot trust any new deadline they can give us right now.”

Mhone said further delays are casting doubt on the integrity of the Auditor General, the British forensic auditors and the Malawi Government.

He also slammed donors for paying lip service to government’s delaying tactics, especially with the submission of the summary of the report to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) before Malawians who had a 60 percent stake in the looted resources.

British High Commissioner Michael Nevin, whose government funded the forensic audit exercise, last Friday issued a statement in which he said government had assured him the report would be independent and free from political manipulation.

He said specific details of a criminal nature would not be made public as Malawians expected because of expected legal action.

The forensic audit was instituted after revelations of plunder of public resources in what has been called the Capital Hill cashgate.