By Neo Kolane
The mystery of the M6.1 billion missing from government coffers continues, with acting auditor general Mafani Masoabi disclosing this week that the money is still not accounted for, four months after the news first broke out in August this year.
Masoabi told the media at a hastily convened press conference on Tuesday that the money has still not been traced and there are no records of it in the accountant general’s office.
An evidently defensive and evasive Masoabi could only regurgitate what her predecessor Monica Besetsa revealed when she said in 2017/18, M123million was unaccounted for, in 2018/19 M470million went missing and in 2019/20, M3.4bilion went missing, and then in 2020/21 a total of M6.1billion was unaccounted for by the accountant general.
She said that reconciliation documents that explain the missing money have not been handed to her office by the accountant general and therefore she could say where the money was or what it was spent on.
“The office of the auditor general made a recommendation that more investigations should be done by the accountant general,” the out-of-sorts acting auditor general said as she struggled to provide answers much to the frustration of the media as the press conference proved to be mothing more than a damp squib.
The consolidated financial statements report of the auditor general for the year ended March 2021 reveals there is an unaccounted for shortfall of M6.157 billion in the government’s 383 various bank accounts both locally and internationally.
In his inauguration speech last month, Prime Minister Samuel Matekane instructed government secretary Lerotholi Pheko to take action on the M6.1 billion indicated in the auditor general’s queries and make the action public in 15 days.
However, local chartered account Lebohang Thotanyane told theReporter this week said it was ‘very much ambitious’ to give the auditor general 15 days to find something that has otherwise been there for years.
Thotanyane said the auditor general spent the whole year digging for the amount and now Pheko is expected to look for it in 15 days, taking into account that this is not just one amount, but a total amount that built up from other amounts from different ministries.
He explained that another challenge is that when money is unaccounted for, it could be due to various reasons.
“We can’t say the auditor general is hiding something. This is a very complex issue and I believe the auditor general has done her part and now it is time for the government to employ a forensic auditor to investigate.
“The forensic auditor will find out about the root cause of the missing M6.1 billion, how much of it was wasted, how much of it cannot really be accounted for because it went missing, and how much can be accounted for although services were provided and even though receipts cannot be found.
“The government secretary was not going to be able to do that as it is beyond his capacity. A forensic auditor after investigation will hand over a detailed report on how much money was spent and for what.
“Accountant generals have failed to do their work because they were unable to account for the missing money,” he said.
He explained that a value auditing needs to be done then, where the value is actually realised then subtracted, what is left will be what cannot be traced then action will be taken, then investigation should start from there.
“It is too early to make a call about what actually happened with the M6.1 billion, except to say that records of the accountant general are poorly managed if expenditure of a budget of M23 billion, and M6.1 billion cannot be accounted for.
“That is over a quarter of the total budget, it reflects poorly on the accountant general, and the fact that she/he is kept at such a position is a problem,” he said.
The question is what the government has done to make sure that the budget is used in a correct manner which is where the question should fundamentally lie.
If this new government wants to solve the issue, they must involve a forensic auditor, he emphasised.
