Auditor General Junias Kandjeke has taken the Livestock and Livestock Products Board of Namibia to task for misrepresenting its financial statements, providing incomplete information and using outdated rates to extract levies from transactions. 

As a result of the violation of set and accepted international accounting standards and principles, Kandjeke slapped the board with a qualified audit opinion for the financial year ended March 2024. 

A qualified opinion is issued when the auditor has identified material misstatements in the financial statements, which include the presentation of insufficient evidence for the auditor to conclude that specific amounts included in the financial statements are not materially misstated. 

The board of Namibia is mainly tasked with facilitating the export and import of Namibia’s livestock and livestock products, as well as regulating the trade of livestock and livestock products within and beyond Namibian borders. 

It is also mandated to provide control over the grading, classification, sale, importation and export of and the imposition of levies in respect of livestock and livestock products, as well as to provide for other incidental matters. 

Key concerns 

Amongst the key concerns that irked Kandjeke during the audit process was the board’s levies transactions and collections of prior years, which the auditors noted were gravely misstated and wrongly recorded. 

The audit report shows that the board wrongly recorded levy transactions that took place in 2020 and 2023 in the books of the 2024 financial year, instead of the 2020 and 2023 books. 

The auditors also discovered that the board used levy collection rates of 2020 and 2023 to collect levies during the 2024 financial year, something that is not legally and procedurally acceptable. 

Auditors could also not verify the completeness and accuracy of the levies collected during the stated periods. 

“We noted that the board has fully adopted the International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS), but the current financial policy does not address credit risk exposure. 

Furthermore, the auditors noted that there are long-standing debtors of over 180 days, but the board did not raise a provision for doubtful debts,” reads the audit report. 

Another issue that was raised in the report is the lack of supporting documentation pertaining to the shortlisting process of candidates who applied for the position of human resources officer before the candidate was eventually employed. 

The auditors could, therefore, not verify the completeness, f airness and accuracy of the employee’s contract as earlier documents before the appointment of the employee requested for review were not made available to the auditors. 

– ohembapu@nepc.com.na