Probe The Whole Accountant General’s Office – Financial Expert
Financial experts in the country have advised government to temporarily shut down the Accountant General’s office and institute proper investigations to determine the exact amount of money embezzled by every staff member working at the cash office.
The call comes at the time when four additional accountants have been arrested on Thursday on suspicion of defrauding the government millions of public funds in a syndicate which corrupted the sophisticated finance management system to pay themselves abnormal allowances.
Former Lecturer at Malawi Assemblies of God University who is now a Consultant In-Chief for Nest Business Consultant, Pharison Chiphinga-Mwale said there is a need for government to institute a thorough investigation to determine how much money has been looted by the 14 accountants who have now been arrested.
Chiphinga-Mwale wondered how middle and junior officers at the Accountant General’s office could access passwords of the Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS) to steal public funds if the top management officials were not involved.
“How can more than ten people access the secret pin-codes used to access public funds?, let that office be closed paving way for thorough investigations on all those working at that Accountant General’s office, there must be senior officers behind this,” Chiphinga Mwale said.
He added saying that there should some Senior Treasury officials at the office who revealed the secret pin-codes of the IFMIS to the juniors in what can ably be described as an organized criminal activity.
While acknowledging the challenges emanating from the arrest of 14 accountants, the Secretary to Treasury, Macdonald Mafuta Mwale says the office has aleady put in place business continuity measures.
Meanwhile, the Chief Resident Magistrate, Madalitso Chimwaza has granted bail to the additional four officers from the Department of the Accountant General who were arrested this week in connection with the theft of K283 million.
The 14 accountants are accused of stealing money from various government ministry departments and agencies through allowances after government discovered the theft and fraud by its own fiscal “watchdogs” at the central finance management office.
