National Audit Office (Nao) has been tasked to conduct a forensic audit into the diversion of at least K3 billion from Price Stabilisation Fund (PSF) by Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority (Mera) to enable Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (Admarc) purchase maize.
Mera board and management came under fire following the revelations of the transactions early this year and, last month, Mera Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Raphael Kamoto, and Director of Finance, Elias Hausi, were sent on leave to pave way for investigations.
Mera Board Chairperson, Bishop Joseph Bvumbwe confirmed on Thursday in an interview with The Daily Times to have engaged Nao last month to carry out the exercise adding that the board expect results after a month.
Bvumbwe explained that the board is taking the matter seriously hence the decision to send on leave the two senior managers so as to get to the bottom of the matter without any interference.
“We have made some progress, we requested National Audit Office last month but we were told that the officers were busy and it’s just a few days ago that we were told that Nao is now ready to do the forensic audit. Whether the intentions were good but the transactions were not done properly because buying maize is clearly not the work of Mera and that is why we want to find out who were the people behind the transactions,” Bvumbwe said.
Spokesperson for the Ministry of Finance, Nations Msowoya, whose boss Secretary to the Treasury, Ronald Mangani, earlier gave Mera three months to refund the money, said Treasury is also following up on the matter with keen interest.
“Treasury also wants to know how such a decision was arrived at and how far the decision making process went. The audit query is very important and we are looking forward to Nao doing a good job.
In a separate interview Auditor General (AG) Stephenson Kamphasa said his office commenced the investigations on Monday but was quick to add that they are still on planning stage and that it might take a while to finish the audit depending on availability of staff.
“You know issues of audit do not restrict you in one area, we will have to go there and do the planning to see what area we have to cover and it’s likely that we will have to do more than what is already known, so it will take us some time to complete,” Kamphasa said.
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