Grant Thornton Zambia – a local unit of a leading international auditing firm engaged to verify and audit domestic payment arrears related to the supply of goods and services to the government of Zambia has also refused to comment on the legality of it’s awarded contract.
When contacted by the Zambian Business Times – ZBT, to give their side of the story, one of the employees at the firm who declined to disclose her name stated that the company was in no position to give a comment on the matter.
When asked to who at the firm could comment, that employee further said the information that no comment should be given was coming from the top offices that included the office of the Managing partner Edgar Hamuwele. Efforts to speak to Hamuwele proved futile by press time.
This is in a wake of emerging Controversy over the legality of Ministry of Finance awarding foreign owned and associated private audit firms multimillion Kwacha audit and arrears verification contracts that includes audits related to defense and security wings of Zambia.
After being asked to give a ministerial statement, Finance Minister Dr. Situmbeko Musokotwane revealed that the total contract value awarded to private audit firms is about $1 million (about K16.8 million).
Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Brian Mundubile and other mainly opposition members of parliament have called on the audit firms to prioritize their reputation and withdraw from these audit if they do not meet the legal test as audit firms need to safeguard their reputation.
However, the ministry of finance insists that the contracts were duly awarded despite indications from sourced at the Office of the Auditor General that they are capable of doing these audits and that there is no need to sub-contract.
Governance stakeholders say the audit firms should clear the air as their business hinges on reputation. The fact that they are even refusing or unable to comment speaks volumes as to how confident they are with the concerns surrounding these controversial contracts.
