Auditors who carried out the Investigative forensic audit on the K6.2 billion Covid funds flouted audit procedures themselves.
The auditors did not conduct exit briefings after completion of their auditing at various ministries, departments and agencies.
Experienced auditors have explained that as auditors go for auditing at an institution, they are required to first have an entry briefing where they meet top management to introduce themselves and purpose of their assignment.
After completion of the audit, procedure demands them to have an exit briefing with the top management to tell them their findings.
Management is given an opportunity to explain their flaws found in the audit and some of the flaws fall off after the discussion because the auditors may have had incomplete information at the time of auditing.
The experts said management is further given a period to respond to the findings of the audit in writing before the audit report is handed over to Parliament.
“Those procedures did not take place in most MDAs and one wonders the agenda the auditors had,” said one expert who has been in auditing for over 20 years.
“The auditors who were hired did amateurish work and their conduct is going to cost government,” he said.
MDAs that we interviewed conformed that exit briefings did not take place.
“Some of the queries are petty and administrative. They should have been explained and ended at exit briefings,” said one controlling officer at a Ministry.
This is political witch hunt which aimed at sparing their own. Autocracy at its best. Why all that haphazardness? Our keen interest rests in how mzati got cornered and ended up joining the feast. We are waiting patiently as the drama unfolds. The auditors also failed to tell us how k3.4b was used. As people born with free minds, we’re at liberty to speculate that may be the by-elections had their lions share too to disadvantage the opposition until we are cleared beyond reasonable doubt. We totally needed a private (external) forensic auditors who can’t take any directives from the ruling elite to sensitive issues to execute the audit. There are more grey areas that need thorough clarity.