Parliament has expressed discontent over what it has described as a continued tendency by Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) deliberately missing documents during audit.

Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament made the displeasure in Lilongwe during an interface with officials from Ministry of Forestry and Natural Resources where it was discovered that some documents were missing at the Ministry in the year ended June 30, 2019.

Speaking to Yoneco FM, PAC Chairperson Shadric Namalomba has described the development as a deliberate move aiming at concealing evidence.

“We don’t believe that and we don’t take that, there is no way a document would miss or would be misplaced at a time when the auditor has come.

“To an extent, we believe that it is a deliberate move, they don’t want to provide that information to the auditor at that moment, they want to have time to study or to recreate documents that would meet the auditor`s observation,” said Namalomba.

But in his response, Director of Administration in the Ministry Hillary Namainja attributed communication breakdown between the Ministry and Auditors in as far as availability of such documents is concerned.

“Sometimes it is because some people have moved from the Ministry and others have come and we have not been able to locate such documents.”

“In other instances is a question of maybe liaising between ourselves and the auditors because sometime the documents are available and at the end of the audit probably those in custody of such documents have not been available,” said Namainja.

Meanwhile, the Committee has given the Ministry officials a period of seven days to furnish it with required details in regards to the missing documents.

The controlling officer has also been requested to provide supporting documents to payment vouchers amounting to K51.6 million.