Tasked by the Board of Commissioners to conduct an internal investigative audit of the all-important Tobacco Commission, the results exposes extravagant over-expenditure and other stupendous financial irregularities of the government institution’s budgets for the fiscal year 2022-2023.
In her summary, Internal Audit Manager, Rhoda Zaniku indicates that the Commission’s majority of votes were over utilized by more than its planned activity budgets — revealing that the budget for enforcement, liaison, monitoring, and evaluation was overspent by K22 million (K22,151,682) indicating a 357% negative variance.
The audit found that billboards worth K25 million (K25.452,00), representing 89% of the actual cost of enforcement, liaison, monitoring, and evaluation charges, was not budgeted for the fiscal year 2022–23.
The engagement also noted that the supplier of the billboard by the name Optima Group requested an 80% advance payment which the Tobacco Commission granted 70% — “contrary to the Secretary of Treasury instructions which banned suppliers demanding payments before delivering goods or services”.
“While the international travel-market…
