Parliament postpones scrutiny of officials implicated in AG report

The parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has postponed scrutiny of government institutions on queries raised in a recent Auditor-General’s report. The lawmakers on the oversight committee cited ‘tight schedule,’ coupled with ongoing recess, that ends early October. While the sessions were initially scheduled for late June, which coincidently drew in when the committees were scrutinising the Budget Framework Paper, the new date was fixed ahead of the next ordinary session. Speaking to The New Times, yesterday, PAC chairperson Juvenal Nkusi said the delays were occasioned by several issues, including recent high profile events that the country hosted. “We have decided to push the sessions to late September on a date we are yet to agree on because even during recess, lawmakers will undertake outreach programmes,” he said. Nkusi assured that the postponement of scrutiny will not affect the rest of the programme that normally consist of compiling a report with recommendations and submit it to the executive for follow-up on mismanaged public finances. Audit result The latest annual Auditor-General’s report, tabled before the Parliament in May, showed that out of 157 public entities audited, only 78 got ‘unqualified’ audit opinion, 22 ‘except for’ audit opinion, while the rest got ‘adverse’ audit opinion. However, none got a disclaimer. Of all 157 audited public entities (compared to 131 of last year), only 50 per cent of them recorded a clean unqualified audit opinion, having relatively improved from the last year’s audit report which was assessed at 36 per cent. Theoneste Karenzi, the deputy chairperson of the committee, had earlier told The New Times that the committee first sampled the public entities depending on categories recorded through tabled financial statements and that all entities were supposed to file formal written responses to the House before the start of the hearing. Should the public scrutiny start, the lawmakers, who are slated to analyse the report in the course of three weeks, will probe the whereabouts of Rwf12.7 billion that lacked financial supporting documents, Rwf3.8 billion with incomplete financial documents, and Rwf1.7 billion classified as wasteful expenditures. editorial@newtimes.co.rw

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Parliament postpones scrutiny of officials implicated in AG report