Zambia National Farmers’ Union challenges the fraud, tax evasion audit report

THE Zambia National Farmers’ Union (ZNFU) says the draft forensic audit report in which senior officials at the organisation have been accused of allegedly misappropriating K34 billion (old currency) through fraud, tax evasion and abuse of authority does not provide any substantiated evidence.
ZNFU first vice-president Richard Lisimba told a press briefing in Lusaka yesterday that the audit report which was commissioned by Swedish International Development Co-operation Agency (SIDA) and carried out by Elasto Mambo of EMM corporate partners does not give any substantiated evidence of fraud of both ZNFU and donor funds.
“The preliminary report does not give any substantiated evidence of fraud of both ZNFU and donor funds,” he said.
Mr Lisimba said ZNFU observed that the auditor had inadequate understanding of the union’s operations and its partnership arrangement with donors under the core support.
He called upon the Zambia Institute of Chartered Accountants (ZICA) to appoint a high-level panel of independent experts to review the terms of reference of the audit.
Mr Lisimba said ZICA should interrogate the professional conduct of the Auditor of the Auditee and review the entire audit process and findings with a view to appointing an independent auditor to be agreed upon between the co-operating partners and ZNFU.
He said all this must be done by first setting aside the “so called” special audit report.

Zambia Daily Mail