Q FM Africa's Modern Radio
Action aid Zambia (AAZ) has welcomed the move by the Ministry Of Finance and National Planning to collaborate with the office of the auditor general to undertake a comprehensive evaluation of the processes related to the accumulation and audit of domestic arrears that various public institutions owe suppliers for goods and services.
The Ministry of Finance and National Planning recently announced that it has in collaboration with the Office of the Auditor General successfully completed tender processes for engagement of independent consultants to evaluate and audit public domestic debt with the areas of focus being Value Added Tax (VAT) refunds, fuel arrears, Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP) arrears, Compensation and Awards, Road Contract arrears and General Goods and Services arrears.
And Action Aid Country Director, Nalucha Ziba says the move is long overdue given the tight fiscal space and unsustainable public debt the country is currently grappling with, which can partly be attributed to the drastic increase in domestic arrears from k41 billion in December 2020 to k76.6 billion in September 2021.
Ms Ziba notes that since 2016, the financial intelligence center (FIC) trends report has been citing the link between corruption and public procurement contracts, mainly perpetrated by politically exposed persons.
She states that despite the revision of the public procurement act (2020), domestic arrears have continued to accumulate with the private sector and SMES finding themselves stifled by the failures of government to dismantle the debt.