The Swaziland Government’s
bank accounts are in such a mess that balances have been miscalculated by more
than E7.5 billion (US$632.1 million), a newspaper has reported.
The Times
Sunday, an independent newspaper in Swaziland reported the acting
Auditor General Muziwandile Dlamini said ‘huge sums’ of money were unaccounted for.
System and human error have
been blamed.
The newspaper
reported (4 March 2018), ‘Dlamini, in the Auditor General’s report
for the financial year ended March 31, 2017, listed a litany of problems he
uncovered in government’s accounting records.
‘He highlighted some of
these as follows: “Bank balances were misstated by E7,528,772,278.72 due to
non-reconciliation between the government cash books and bank statements. 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.”’
Dlamini said it was
impossible to audit the books properly because he had not been given adequate
documents and information.
This is not the first time Swazi Government accounts have
been found wanting. In November 2016 the Times
of Swaziland reported Treasury
Department accounts had a shortfall of
E5.1 billion. A forensic
report undertaken by Kobla Quashie Consultants found the shortfall between what
was in the bank accounts and other financial records.
The Times,
the only independent daily newspaper in the kingdom where King Mswati III rules as sub-Saharan Africa’s last
absolute monarch, reported that, ‘this has put the spotlight on wholly
unacceptable banking reconciliation systems at the Treasury Department’.
The newspaper quoted Kobla
Quashie saying, ‘It should be stated that the amounts noted as differences are
so significant that it renders the annual treasury accounts submitted to
Parliament and other government agencies inaccurate and misleading.’
See also
MINISTER LIFTS LID ON CORRUPTION
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