15 Jun 2014

Ministries have been advised to ensure that they avoid overspending as this rendered the annual budget allocations useless.

Chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Mr Nehemiah Modubule has told ministries who re-submitted their presentations to the committee on  June 12 that it was important to operate within the limits of the budget.

Mr Modubule said no ministry was allowed to exceed the P4 million over expenditure allowance as this puts a lot of strain of government coffers.

“It is very important for accounting officers to monitor the expenditure of ministries to make sure that they do not over exceed what was allocated to them,” he said. Ministries which were making re-submission of their accounts management to the Public Accounts Committee, showed that most of them had over spent their initial budgets.

The Public Accounts Committee members also expressed concern about ministries that left a lot of accounts details hanging, not showing the balance of amounts as well as poor record keeping. Mr Modubule advised accounting officers to take accounting records serious and make it a habit to cross check to details the accounts presented to the committee.

During their re-submission, the Ministry of State President could not account for the re-alignment of their ministry by bringing in the Directorate Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) and the Directorate of Intelligence Service (DIS).

Mr Modubule asked Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Presidential Affairs and Public Administration, Mr Arnold Madikwe, to explain why the two departments were relocated from the Ministry of Defense, Justice and Security.

Mr Madikwe said he could not explain why the two departments were relocated as this was more of a policy than accounting issue.

He also gave light that the two departments did not affect their report as his ministry’s audit report was done way after the two departments were relocated from the Ministry of Defense, Justice and Security. ENDS