MPs Pressure Abiy to Take Actions on Mismanaged Institutions  

By Sisay Sahlu

ADDIS ABABA – Lawmakers have approved on Thursday a resolution to force Abiy Ahmed’s administration to take action on government offices known for their financial irregularities.

A government audit report, presented to parliament last month, found many state-financed institutions and ministry out consistently ignoring the country’s financial procedures and have auditing gaps.

These institutions include foreign affairs, defense ministries as well as customs authorities, and public universities.

After hearing the audit report, members of the House of People’s Representatives (HPR) expressed their dissatisfaction with the outcome of the audit report, which incorporates shocking figures of unaccounted and illegal expenses as well as uncollected revenues by the federal offices over the past few years.

The issue led the house’s Government Expenditure Administration and Audit standing committee to make a motion to force the executive body to act on the institutions on Thursday.

Chairperson of the standing committee, Mohamed Yusuf said a majority of government institutions fail to follow financial rules, which are put in place, both in terms of budget allocation for their projects and administrating finance.

The committee’s motion, read to MPs on Thursday, indicates eight common problems found in the audit reports of the ministries and government institutions.

It claims these institutions were found engaged in the procurement process without following regulations, as well as paying salaries for terminated, resigned, and absent employees.

They also failed to carry out their responsibility of collecting government’s revenue, made payments arbitrarily, failed to ask for compensation for delayed construction projects as per regulations of the country.

The motion also revealed that they failed to collect overdue as well as engaging in an improper use of public properties.

The parliament, after hearing the motion, passed a five-point resolution that puts pressure on the government to act, quickly.

According to their resolution, the government should take immediate action against state Institutions accused of misspending public resources, as well as officials who have been responsible for that.

These people should be accountable for what they did and make them pay for their deeds, the resolution states.

It also tells the executive body to make sure this resolution is actively carried out, and inform the house of its progress on a three-month basis.

MPs have also endorsed the resolution with a majority vote.