By Catherine Sasman WINDHOEK The audited reports of the National Planning Commission (NPC) for the financial year that ended in March 2005 do not “look very good”, according to the chairperson of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, Johan de Waal. He ascribed this state of affairs largely to the fact that bank accounts operated by the NPC were not properly monitored and controlled. During that financial year, the NPC operated nine bank accounts. No bank statement for the joint Government / UNDP account was submitted. And for the fourth consecutive year, the NPC failed to submit the required financial statements for each of its accounts. “Bank accounts are not something you play with,” commented De Waal, recommending proper and tighter controls for the transactions of these accounts. Mocks Shivute, NPC’s PS, explained that audited financial statements of accounts were not submitted due to the fact that the finance sub-division did not have enough staff at the time. The NPC has since spruced up its staff complement in that division. Shivute further told the committee that there are no dedicated persons assigned to deal with NPC special accounts for donor-funded projects. The NPC is also administering a number of projects such as the national census and surveys, with no financial statements of these submitted to the Auditor-General. The audited report further brought to light unauthorized expenditure amounting to N$604ÃÆ’Æ‘ÀÃ…ÃÆ”šÃ‚ 704,98 in four sub-divisions. Shivute stated that this expenditure was incurred on remuneration. “Considering the fact that the monthly salaries are normally processed a month in advance, it is practically impossible to anticipate that such an excess may occur on the sub-divisions personnel,” was Shivute’s response. During the year under review, eight cases of lost equipment occurred, of which five were not reported to the police. The unreported cases, suggested Financial Adviser to the NPC, Leonard Haukongo, were minor cases of theft. The cases went unreported, he stated, because the people involved were not aware of the procedures to be followed when there are losses to the Government. “It so happened that some staff members insisted on not going and reporting the matter to the police despite advice to do so from our stock control officials,” added Shivute. The Public Accounts committee suggested that proper investigations be ordered, with written statements obtained on the prevailing circumstances to determine the liability of public officials whose acts or negligence may have caused the loss or damage, or have contributed to it, for further action. The permanent payroll run of the NPC, when compared with the General Ledger (GL), has found a difference of N$14ÃÆ’Æ‘ÀÃ…ÃÆ”šÃ‚ 223ÃÆ’Æ‘ÀÃ…ÃÆ”šÃ‚ 743,67. This difference came from 88 transactions that were in the GL but not on the payroll, and 60 transactions from which only 50% have been passed to the GL. Shivute explained that its reconciliation process was hampered by delays in printing the GL that is normally received by line ministries after two or three months. It is anticipated that much of these problems will dissipate with the introduction of the new Integrated Financial Management System (IFMS) that will bring about a uniform accounting system to all government agencies.