NPC overspent by N$604 000

THE National Planning Commission (NPC) only managed to collect N$361 from its civil servants for private phone calls made from their offices, but had optimistically budgeted some N$15 000 as possible income for these calls, a Parliamentary committee has heard.

The NPC overspent its budget by N$604 705 in the financial year ending on March 31, 2005. Permanent Secretary Mocks Shivute was at pains trying to explain the situation, although he only came to the NPC after March 2005.”We have a credit system in place for the telephones now and once the credit is used up, no more calls can be made until the next month,” Shivute said.However, Johan de Waal, who chairs the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Accounts, told Shivute the NPC should have made more effort to collect payments from officials for private calls.”The NPC has nearly a dozen special bank accounts, but again could not submit financial statements for them, the fourth year in a row, not even for the joint bank account of Government and UNDP.”Your audit does not look very good,” De Waal told Shivute.”Those bank accounts should be properly and tightly controlled.”Shivute responded that lack of staff in that division was a problem at the time, but it has been sorted out in the meantime.De Waal also criticised that the General Ledger (GL) of the NPC differed by N$14,2 million and did not reconcile with the permanent payroll run.Some 88 transactions were recorded in the GL, but not on the payroll.Once the National Planning Commission was fully connected to the Integrated Financial Management System (IFMS) introduced by the Finance Ministry recently, control on accounting and finances would improve, Shivute said.The Committee was also concerned about the fact that five of eight reported cases of lost equipment, among them minor cases of theft, had not been reported to the Police.In one incident a camera was stolen and in another a bunch of office keys.”Officials were unaware of procedures that have to be followed in the case of loss or theft,” Shivute replied.The Committee insisted that the NPC should obtain written statements from the officials involved in all eight cases.Permanent Secretary Mocks Shivute was at pains trying to explain the situation, although he only came to the NPC after March 2005.”We have a credit system in place for the telephones now and once the credit is used up, no more calls can be made until the next month,” Shivute said.However, Johan de Waal, who chairs the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Accounts, told Shivute the NPC should have made more effort to collect payments from officials for private calls.”The NPC has nearly a dozen special bank accounts, but again could not submit financial statements for them, the fourth year in a row, not even for the joint bank account of Government and UNDP.”Your audit does not look very good,” De Waal told Shivute.”Those bank accounts should be properly and tightly controlled.”Shivute responded that lack of staff in that division was a problem at the time, but it has been sorted out in the meantime.De Waal also criticised that the General Ledger (GL) of the NPC differed by N$14,2 million and did not reconcile with the permanent payroll run.Some 88 transactions were recorded in the GL, but not on the payroll.Once the National Planning Commission was fully connected to the Integrated Financial Management System (IFMS) introduced by the Finance Ministry recently, control on accounting and finances would improve, Shivute said.The Committee was also concerned about the fact that five of eight reported cases of lost equipment, among them minor cases of theft, had not been reported to the Police.In one incident a camera was stolen and in another a bunch of office keys.”Officials were unaware of procedures that have to be followed in the case of loss or theft,” Shivute replied.The Committee insisted that the NPC should obtain written statements from the officials involved in all eight cases.