Chinamasa under fire

 4.1.6.1    The Committee recommends that the Accountant General’s Office, going forward, should enforce the cut off periods in line with best practices. In this regard the Ministry of Foreign Affairs should observe the 13th period cut off deadline and close its books of accounts for the current year by 31st January, 2017.

 4.1.7    Failure by the System to display asset register for the Ministries of Finance and Economic Development; Information Communication Technology, Postal and Courier Services and Foreign Affairs

The SAP system maintains a register of assets for Ministries and Government Departments. The system could not display asset registers therefore audit could not verify the assets for the Ministries of Finance and Economic Development, Information Communication Technology, Postal and Courier Services and Foreign Affairs, in the system. Assets for the Ministry of Defence could be displayed in the system but only those acquired from 2009 to date. Assets for all Ministries bought prior to 2009 were therefore, not in the system at the time of audit. The audit further revealed that the problem with asset upload was a configuration problem affecting assets purchased prior to the introduction of the multi-currency system. The risk associated with this finding is that if some assets are not recorded in the system the integrity and completeness of asset records becomes compromised and unreliable.

The Accountant General acknowledged the finding. He pointed out that where a Ministry had to make adjustments of any kind after the 13th period, the system could only display the asset register after a depreciation run has been carried out. This was not done for the ministries in question when the audit was carried out. He advised the Committee that the Ministry was working on improving the system design with a view to separate expenditures from commitments.

 In addition, he pointed out that Government operates on cash basis accounting and all assets bought since dollarization, have been captured in the system at cost. A physical record was being maintained, but does not include values for assets bought before dollarization. He assured the Committee that Ministries had complete manual records of all assets that they held prior to dollarization without the original costs being reflected but for assets after dollarization, the costs of such are included in the assets registers.

 4.1.7.1    The Committee observed that maintenance of up to date assets registers was a challenge in a number of Ministries. It therefore, recommends training on maintenance of asset registers across Ministries by 30th September, 2016.

 4.1.7.2    It also recommends that all accounting officers should closely monitor this area and ensure asset registers are checked for completeness and accuracy by January 31st, every year.

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