Mohale FM PARLIAMENT’S Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has called for a forensic audit into the M6 billions flagged in successive Auditor-General reports, arguing that the government must conclusively account for the money and restore public confidence in public finances.
The proposal emerged during this week’s PAC hearings, where Auditor-General, ’Mathabo Makenete, and her team appeared before the Committee to explain findings contained in the audit reports for the financial years ending 31 March 2023 and 31 March 2024.In both reports, the Auditor-General issued adverse audit opinions, stating that the consolidated financial statements did not fairly reflect the government’s financial position.
The reports highlighted unreconciled balances amounting to M3.49 billion in 2022/23 and M3.09 billion in 2023/24.
However, the figures remain the subject of debate after Minister of Finance and Development Planning, Dr Retšelisitsoe Matlanyane, recently rejected suggestions that the money had disappeared or been squandered.
Dr Matlanyane has maintained that the M3.09 billion reflected in the latest report was not new missing money but the remaining balance of the M6.1 billion discrepancy first flagged in the 2020/21 audit report. According to the minister, the government reconciliation efforts had gradually reduced the unexplained amount from M6.1 billion in 2020/21 to M3.5 billion in 2022/23 and further to M3.09 billion in 2023/24.
