JOHANNESBURG – Swaziland’s acting auditor general, Muziwandile Dlamini, says huge sums of government money are unaccounted for.
Dlamini’s report for the financial year ended March 31, 2017 lists a litany of problems uncovered in the accounting records of the government with the blame pointing to human and system error.
“Bank balances were misstated by Emalangeni 7,528,772,278.72 (more than R7.5 billion) due to non-reconciliation between the government cash books and bank statements, Swaziland’s Times Sunday reported Dlamini saying.
“Some bank balances were overstated by E2,285,935,191.93 and other bank account balances were understated by E5,242,837,086.79 thus reflecting an incorrect cash flow position of the Government of Swaziland at year end.”’
Due to the inconsistencies involved and the lack of access to all the relevant documentation and information, the acting auditor general said it was impossible to audit the books properly.
In November 2016 Swaziland’s Treasury Department had a shortfall of E5.1 billion too.
The Times, the kingdom’s only independent daily newspaper, said that these developments “put the spotlight on wholly unacceptable banking reconciliation systems at the Treasury Department”.