Auditor-General Junias Etuna Kandjeke has issued a qualified audit opinion on the Government of Namibia’s financial statements after identifying an unreconciled N$792.4 million discrepancy in State Revenue Fund records for the financial year ended 31 March 2025.
The audit found that the Summary of Control Suspense Accounts reflected a closing balance of N$5.70 billion, while the execution ledger showed N$6.50 billion, leaving a difference of N$792.4 million that had not been reconciled.
“This indicates a significant variance and points to weaknesses in the reconciliation and reliability of the State Revenue Fund records,” the Auditor-General’s report said.
The audit also found that government revenue was understated after money collected through customs and the Inland Revenue Department was not properly allocated to the relevant revenue accounts.
Kandjeke further raised concerns over the government’s continued failure to implement recommendations to adopt International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) and move from cash-based to accrual-based accounting.
According to the report, the recommendation has remained unresolved despite being raised for five consecutive years.
The audit also identified N$252.9 million in unauthorised expenditure by the Ministry of Defence, which spent N$7.14 billion against an approved budget of N$6.88 billion during the financial year.
At the same time, 14 government offices, ministries and agencies collectively underspent their budgets by N$1.23 billion, equivalent to 4.36% of their combined budgets.
This compares with underexpenditure of N$1.42 billion, or 1.96%, recorded in the previous financial year.
The Auditor-General cited Treasury instructions requiring accounting officers and financial advisers to ensure that institutions do not request more funding than can reasonably be spent.
“The underexpenditure on the following fourteen (14) Offices/Ministries/Agencies amounted to N$1 231 123 715.88 (4.36%) of the total budget,” the report said.
Further weaknesses were identified in customs administration, where bond limits for several customs warehouses exceeded authorised amounts without supporting documentation. The findings add to concerns over the accuracy of government financial reporting and internal controls, with the qualified audit opinion indicating that identified problems were significant enough to affect parts of the financial statements.
