State House under microscope over unauthorised N$131m expenditure

Auditor general Junias Kandjeke has poked holes in the unauthorised expenditure of over N$131 million of the Office of the President.

This is according to the auditors report for the year ended 31 March 2024.

He says unauthorised expenditure occurred during the financial year and is hereby reported as such in terms of Section 27(6)(a) of the State Finance Act 1991.

He says one main division was exceeded with an amount of N$273 273, stating that this excess amount is unauthorised in terms of Section 6(a)(ii) of the act.

Kandjeke says although treasury authorisation was obtained to utilise certain expected savings for the defrayal of expenditure by way of virements during the year, 13 operational subdivisions were exceeded by a total amount of N$131.88 million.

“The absence of evidence to substantiate the reported performance information renders the outputs unreliable and might not be useful to the general public and stakeholders,” he says.

He says immediate corrective actions are required to address gaps in documentation and ensure alignment with performance reporting standards.”The lack of substantiating evidence for reported performance information increases the risk of misrepresentation or inaccuracies in reporting, which undermines the credibility of the Office of the President,” Kandjeke says. This, he says, can lead to a loss of trust among stakeholders, reduce transparency and potential challenges in demonstrating accountability to the general public and stakeholders. He says these issues were reported in the 2022/2023 audit report, however, these matters were still not addressed by the accounting officer during the financial year under review.

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