IN his audit report of the War Veterans Trust Fund, the Auditor General (AG), Junias Kandjeke, expressed concern because ‘payments to the war veterans could not be verified’.
This report for the financial years March 2002 to 2008, the AG stated that this could could not be confirmed ‘as a detailed list of approved and authorised veterans was not submitted’. As a result, he stated, ‘the auditors were therefore unable to satisfy themselves as to the accuracy and validity of subventions paid’.Another alleged mishap which the AG remarked upon is that ‘no accounting controls exist over donations received; accordingly it was impractical for the auditors to extend audit procedures beyond receipts actually recorded’.As the war veterans have over the past decade resided under three different ministries – health and social services, labour and social welfare and veteran affairs – the AG this week had difficulty in determining who needs to be held responsible.During a hearing by the National Standing Committee on Public Accounts, a deputy director in the labour ministry, Albert Biwa, denied that their was any oversight on their part.The committee wanted to know from him and Permanent Secretary (PS) Peter Mwatile why the required records had not been kept.Mwatile could not provide answers as he had not been involved with that ministry at the time.Biwa maintained that although they kept no separate records for the fund, the Ministry of Labour submitted financials to the AG as a whole to avoid duplication of the function. ‘It is void of any truth that we did not keep any records. We have a register with all the cheques received and issued. I have all the evidence.’He added that they used a database with veterans’ details for payments throughout. ‘And we also got the veterans to make an affidavit.’According to him, about N$17 million was still available in the fund when it was transferred to the veterans’ ministry on April 1 2008.
