Annual Audit preparedness review by the NLGFC has revealed that much as there is progress in financial management in most councils, challenges of record maintenance and documentation remains critical in other councils.

NLGFC Audit Manager, Thomson Longwe said this during an exercise targeting councils aimed at reviewing the completeness of council financial records and where necessary offer advice to councils on how best they can minimize recurring audit queries.

“We planned to undertake an annual audit preparatory review and follow it up in all councils to assist them to be ready for audits. Councils are supposed to have proper internal controls and complete records of their financial and non-financial data. Of late, most councils have struggled to have their records completed in time for annual audits. The review disclosed that councils are still struggling with Recurring Audit queries/Issues,” said Longwe.

According to Thomson, missing activity reports, failure to do bank reconciliations, Payments made outside IFMIS, missing payment vouchers/ poor filing of records, Payments made without adequate supporting documents, Procurement not complying with Laws and Regulations, poor fuel management and Payments made ‘For Staff’ instead of Electronic Bank Transfer are some of the recurring issues uncovered in councils during the review.

He said Councils’ Management needs to work harder to address the gaps so that they can eliminate suspicions of abuse and mismanagement as well as audit queries. A year end pre-audit or self-assessment is something all councils must adopt before an annual external audit can be undertaken to resolve most internal control deficiencies highlighted.