“There are officials who come to the Audit Bureau office with a handgun but we are not afraid of handgun” Federal Auditor
Borkena
Toronto – Ethiopia’s Federal Auditor on Tuesday presented a report to the parliament. Based on the presentation, which is covered by the Ethiopian Reporter, there appears to be over 32 billion birr budgets expenses unaccounted for across several Federal government offices.
Procurement practices that violate the law, payouts to undisclosed recipients, and capital projects without 21 billion projects that are currently stopped are among points highlighted in the Auditor’s report.
42.7 million birr paid out without evidence as to who it is paid for. Over 404.7 million birr spending in procurements that violate government regulations and procedures. According to Mesert Damtie, the chief auditor, the practice has been observed across 70 federal government offices and 7 branch offices.
The Ministry of Sports and Culture, Ministry of Water and Energy and National Rehabilitation Commission are among the offices where the problems were more pronounced, according to the auditor.
It is also mentioned that the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission has reported expenses that do not appear to be convincing to the auditor.
Overall, the finding from the Federal auditor for the ending fiscal year seems to suggest that major corrupt practices persisted across several government offices. Last year, the auditor reported major corruption practices including in the Immigration office where fees for service were directed to personal accounts opened by the employees. The story from last year is available here.
The auditor also heighted the risky nature of their work as there are even officials that come to the office with handguns – apparently with an intent to harm auditors.
In a meeting with business people last week, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed made claims that “there is no major corruption at the Federal government level.”
Some opposition members of parliament yesterday criticized that the government offices who are linked to the findings of the Auditor were not present in the parliament to answer questions. Speaker of the House, Tagesse Chafo, told members of the parliament that “an invitation was sent out” to relevant government offices and that a “corrective measure” will be taken.
There have been criticisms that there was no action on the part of the government to hold offices implicated in questionable spending and procurement practices accountable. The response from the parliament, whose 95 percent of members are from the ruling party, was “a corrective measure will be taken.” Not specified as to when that will happen.
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Hey all of you with sticky fingers! Our sister the over qualified auditor and Taytu incarnate H.E. Meseret bint Damtie is telling you to cough up what you stole from the nation’s coffers. You are caught red-handed. She will not stop exposing you until either you gargle it out or stop stealing. What did you do with the money you stole from those poor citizens? Did you share it with your home boys wandering aimlessly in the wilderness of Amhara and Oromia regions or to your conniving and bigoted buddies in LA, Minnesota, Toronto, Oslo and Down Under? Hey bud! I’m thinking about buying a convenient store or gas station teemed with a spanking new website. How about tossing a couple of mil my way? I promise I will never tell anyone, even H.E. Meseret bint Damtie.