Details have emerged of how the Green Belt Authority (GBA) spoiled a team of auditors with hefty allowances using rates meant for board members at a time the government has put in place public expenditure control measures.

In September this year, the authority undertook a personnel audit which involved 10 officials drawn from different government ministries, departments and agencies.

Chidzungu: The rate was an extension of what the board gets

An internal memo from GBA acting human resources officer Steven Nachuma to his chief executive officer dated September 27 2022, which we have seen, shows that each of the team members received a daily subsistence allowance (DSA) of K70 000 for four day K276 480 (TnT) and fuel to cover a distance of 127 kilometres between Lilongwe and Salima.

A similar meeting also took place in Lilongwe at Wamkulu Palace on September 26 2022 where the audit team received K70 000 each as DSA.

Reads the memo in part: “The total allowance for Salima trip is summing to K6 212 800. Further, I would also like to request an additional one day allowance for the team since the meeting at Wamkulu Palace proceeded yesterday the 26th September, 2022 than anticipated amounting to K630 000.”

The Salima trip came at a time when the government was implementing expenditure control measures and had imposed a ban on meetings outside Lilongwe.

But in a written response, GBA chief executive officer Eric Chidzungu justified the allowances, saying the audit team was an extension of the board; hence, they used the rates meant for the GBA board of directors in compensating them.

He said: “I do not recall specific details regarding Wamkulu Palace and the Salima meetings as my job was just to provide support. I was not sitting in the relevant working committees.”

Chidzungu, however, could not respond to claims about the Salima meeting and why the officers were paid the same rate for a meeting which took place in Lilongwe.

On his part, GBA board chairperson Peter Kossamu said he was not in a better position to explain the matter. He asked for more time.

However, one of the members of the audit team told us that they who used board rates because the officers were drawn from different offices belong to different grades, as such, GBA decided to use one rate.

“The choice of venue was to allow the team to conduct physical verification on officers who work for GBA in Salima,” the official said.

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