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Botswana: Staff Leaving Enmasse
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The Voice (Francistown)
22 April 2008
Posted to the web 22 April 2008
Moses Maruping
Francistown
But the Auditor General leaves a happy man with organizational performance
Despite numerous efforts to retain its workforce, the Office of the Auditor General says it continues to be hit by the mass exodus of staff thus making it difficult for the institution to deliver on its mandate of auditing accounts of all government institutions and parastatals.
Speaking at a farewell breakfast conference with the media this week, the Auditor General, Pelonomi Nanogang, who is poised to retire from office by the end of the month, said the mass departure of staff has become one of the institution's major challenges.
He noted that the said employees are being poached by some of the local institutions known to pay better salaries compared to the civil service. However, Nanogang said the migration of employees was not only restricted to his institution as the big five firms in the country are also plagued by the same malady.
"We've so far lost about five auditors to greener pastures who were recruited whilst undergoing training at the Botswana Accountancy College. We've also lost about six chartered accountants during the past six years."
He pointed out that the retention and attraction of chartered accountants was a major challenge but said recent efforts taken by government to introduce scarce skills allowance was a welcome development.
The outgoing auditor general said his institution's efforts to enhance professionalism require continuous training of staff and that it was, however, unfortunate that these auditors tend to leave for greener pastures.
"Nevertheless, this trend will not deter us and we will, therefore, continue to send staff for professional training. We will not just sit back and leave the institution to go to wreck and ruin. We always strive to feel the vacant posts within a three-month period."
Nanogang, who took over the leadership of OAG in 2004, said he had set himself milestones such as the separation of the Finance and Audit Act into both Public Act and Public Financial Management and Control Act.
He, however, noted that all has not been achieved and hoped that his successor would continue where he has left off.
He said in promoting the culture of good governance and accountability, his office has, over the years, highlighted through audit queries, areas of irregularities in the public sector which resulted in the recovery of public funds and enhanced compliance to procedures and regulations.
"Take for instance the performance audit which was introduced in 1992 to harmonize financial audit and add value to our service. This division has since 2006/07 increased its audit scope to include local authorities and this rollout started during 2007/08 and is now spreading within the units and sections of these authorities." He further noted that the number of performance audit reports produced by his institution has increased from six in 2005/06 to fourteen in 2007/08.
Another key milestone, Nanogang said was the introduction of the information systems audit in 2006 which he said was instrumental in the IT Audit on Vehicle Registration System of the Department of Transport and Safety. "Although the unit is still experiencing teething problems in terms of staffing, the Office will continue to ensure that it gets share in terms of human resources."
The auditor general said as a demonstration of a vote of confidence in their competence, his auditors have at the invitation of some African countries facilitated at numerous workshops in the region. Also, the Office of the Auditor General has been appointed as the auditor of the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) since 2006 to 2008.
Nanogang also noted that the OAG has, along with the Auditor Generals of both Angola and Zimbabwe, selected to audit the Southern African Development Community (SADC) from 2007 to 2009. Meanwhile, Assistant Auditor General for Performance Audit and Parastatals, Letsholo Letsholo, said the institution is doing all in its power to be on par with the private sector by adopting latest auditing trends and practices.
He said this will be made possible by things such as the now in place implementation of the regularity audit manual which will ensure compliance with international standards on auditing as well as consistency in the audit approach taken.
Letsholo added that they are in the process of separating the Finance and Audit Act and creating a new Public Audit Act to regulate the office.
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This he said is largely due to the fact that currently the office is governed by an Act which is administered by the Minister responsible for Finance and this has led to the misunderstanding that the office is under the administration of the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning.
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