The National Audit Office has asked CSOs to be proactive in providing checks and balances in the councils in Malawi.
The call was made by the Assistant Auditor General, Frank Chitanda, during citizen engagement external stakeholder consultations in Mzimba District on Monday.
He says the office has seen a lot of potential in CSOs.
“We are 89% understaffed. Our wish was to have a representative in all councils, but unfortunately, we do not, hence calling for CSOs to assist our office in raising red flags where needed. We are not replacing audit exercises that we normally do, all we are doing is to enhance participatory audit,” he said.
Chitanda has further requested the CSOs to share some tips even before auditors come to councils for regular audits. He adds officers come to do audits without any information or specific red flags, saying “All we do is concentrate on the bulky documents the councils give us.”
He accused the officers of leaving too much work and eventually ending up rushing through the process, thereby skipping critical flows, which can easily be flagged if CSOs and our office collaborate well.
These consultation meetings are supported by UNICEF.
