GOVERNMENT ISSUES DIRECTIVE ON ALL AUDIT REPORTS

Treasury Registrar (TR), Lawrence Mafuru.

The government will compel all institutions in the local and central government to publish their annual audit reports in government newspapers so as to increase transparency and efficiency on the management of public funds.

Treasury Registrar (TR) Lawrence Mafuru told the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) yesterday that all district councils and other public institutions and ministries will be publishing their audit reports so that those slapped with qualified opinion audit reports can be exposed to the public.

“Currently, various audit reports by the office of the Controller and Auditor General (CAG) show that the situation is not bad and many public bodies have been getting qualified opinion reports,’’ he said.

Mr Mafuru added that by publishing the annual audit reports, the government will increase efficiency in various Local Government Authorities (LGAs) and in the central government.

“Nobody would want to be ashamed that his institution or district council is among those with qualified opinion report, but also the institutions that will receive the unqualified audit reports shall be proud of their job,’’ he added.

CAG, Professor Mussa Assad, expects to table his annual audit report in Parliament for the year ending June 2016 next year, before the parliamentary budget session. This means publications of the annual audit report shall begin after the next annual report is tabled in Parliament.

The TR’s remarks came after the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) Governor, Prof Beno Ndulu, presented before the committee his institution’s annual financial report before PAC.

His report was commended by the committee although there were few anomalies including unretired imprest, but the committee Chairperson and Same East Member of Parliament, Naghenjwa Kaboyoka (CHADEMA), asked Mr Ndulu to make sure that the anomalies were corrected in the next annual report.

Daily News