Staff shortage cripples CDF audit: Matinenga

All MPs in the country’s 210 constituencies were allocated US$50 000 each for development. There have been reports that some legislators abused the funds. This prompted the responsible ministry to engage auditors to investigate the alleged misappropriation.
In an interview last week, Minister Matinenga said Government needed more staff to help the eight auditors.
Although Minister Matinenga refused to give a specific time frame for the completion of the audit, sources said Government was facing an acute cash shortage to recruit more auditors.
“Audit is an ongoing process but it is unfortunate that at the moment we only have two teams of eight people who are doing the auditing. That is the major handicap that we have,” said Minister Matinenga.
“My concern is that because of the shortage of staff, we will not be able to complete the process any time soon.
“I cannot give you a time frame but what I can say is that the process is going to take some time.
“So far we have managed to audit slightly above 60 constituencies out of the 210 constituencies that we have.”
Contrary to reports that some MPs were already facing prosecution for abusing the CDF, Minister Matinenga said each case would be treated on its merit. In some cases, Minister Matinenga said, MPs committed mistakes in sorting out their accounting books and they could not be penalised for that.
He challenged members of the public with tangible evidence showing that MPs abused the CDF to present such information to Government.
“In some cases people are fighting political battles trying to rubbish the image of the sitting MPs using unsubstantiated claims that they have abused the CDF.
“As Government we are saying if you have concrete evidence that a certain MP has abused the CDF, come forward with that information. We will do our own investigations.
“If we establish that there was misappropriation of funds we will ask the MP to explain how he used the money. If he fails to give a satisfactory answer we will refer the matter to the relevant authorities,” he said.