The Kavango West Regional Council has submitted its seven years' outstanding financial statement, a day before the public hearing regarding the Council's non-submission of its annual financial statement.
This was shared during a visit by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Accounts at Nkurenkuru on Wednesday.
The public hearing regarding the Regional Council's non-submission of its annual financial statements to the Office of the Auditor General was scheduled to take place on Tuesday.
The financial years in question are from 2021 until 2025.
Chief Regional Officer (CRO) at the Kavango West Regional Council, Matheus Singambwe, appealed to lawmakers for understanding over the late delivery of their financial records.
He stated that preparing financial statements is a lengthy process requiring more than a week to complete.
While presenting their newly developed action plan, he apologised to the Parliamentary Standing Committee, emphasising their absolute respect for the committee's oversight authority.
“There is no way we would undermine you. On this same matter, we had another engagement with the other committee in the National Council, which also informed us that they had previously submitted it. They indicated that they would come back to us; hence, we needed to honour our commitment, and we are doing so. We did not mean to disrespect any of you,” explained Singambwe.
The Regional Council submitted annual financial statements up to 2024 so far; the CRO shared that the council started working on the statements since last year, June, with the assistance of a consultant.
The CRO promised the committee that the council will finalise the backlog by October this year.
According to the Act, the accounting officer of a Regional Council should submit its annual statement within three months, or such a longer period as the auditor general may approve after the end of a financial year.
A member of the committee, Inna Hengari, explained the procedure.
"Yes, it's good that you meet the deadline, of course, within those three months stipulated under section 40 of the Act. Of course, you meet the deadlines, but it's also important that the reports come out clean because a clean report, we hope, most of us here hope, also means that there is prudent financial management at the Regional Council.”