Cars for unrest
by the careful distribution of funds.´
Matsebula said he was concerned about the fact that the ministry opted to spend ( 0 4. 0 on cars rentals instead of procuring new vehicles with the value equivalent to the leasing price.
LEASING
He said he was not aware of any constraints by government to the ministry for procuring the cars other than leasing them, and the justifica tions on why the controlling officer opted to hire vehicles, as some of them incurred extra costs, damages costs and exceeded the authorised kilometres, which increased the prices even more and drained more of the public funds.
Further, he said he was not aware of whether the option to buy new vehicles was weighed against the option to rent them.
He said this would enable the min istry to identify the best balance of cost, benefits and risks, and consider value for money.
While in the latest audit the com panies from which the vehicles were rented have not been mentioned, the previous audit listed four car rental entities.
These were African &ar Hire, &ap ital &ar Hire, &ontinum Investments and Woodford &ar Hire.
SUPPORTING
Three of these companies (African &ar Hire, &apital &ar Hire, &on tinum Investments) were found to have rented out the vehicles without any supporting documents.
It was also discovered that there were overpayments of invoices amounting to ( .4 made to Woodford &ar Hire and &apital &ar Hire.
These were payments made without proper calculations of the attached invoices
The AG drew the attention of the controlling officer, that there were no supporting documents (pay ment vouchers) for the expenditure amounting to ( 0 2 4. to fully authenticate the payment made, thus limiting his audit scope.
The non provision of documentary evidence on the payments made to the car hire companies, the AG said, was a clear concealment of ev idence that the expenditure may not have been utilised for the described purpose.
He said this act by the ministry was a tactic, deliberately exercised to conceal any possibilities of em be]]lement or misappropriation of public funds that he may discover on the supporting documentation.
IMPLEMENTED
He further stated that he was de prived the right to have access to all information and documentation so that he could advise on improve ments that should be implemented for the betterment of the operations.
This occurrence, he added, was in contravention of Section 02 of the Financial and Accounting Instructions which states that all vouchers must contain full particu lars in respect of the payment made to enable the voucher to be checked and paid without reference to any other document and highlighted that supporting documents must be secured to the voucher.
He said he advised the controlling officer to provide the Office of the Auditor General with the outstand ing documents and always adhere to Section 02 of the Financial and Accounting Instructions.