The Chairperson of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Accounts, Dudu Murorua, has called on local authorities and public institutions to scrutinise their record-keeping for the purpose of effective service delivery.

Murorua said this in an interview with nbc News at Oshakati during their week-long public hearing on the utilisation of public funds by local authorities.

The committee held a public hearing with the Katima Mulilo Town Council on the utilisation of public funds in the financial year that ended in March 2019.

The Auditor General's report for the 2019 financial year gave the Katima Mulilo town council an adverse audit opinion based on a lack of supportive documents and adherance to the standard required for completion of the audit.

"The basic problem that I have seen is that they do not have an asset register, and my personal opinion is that there is a misconception between an asset register and a valuation roll. In my opinion, an asset register is just to register your assets and do stocktaking every year to know exactly what you have. Those two pieces of information were lacking to a great extent when it came to Katima Mulilo."

Another hurdle encountered is the lack of funds for capacity building, which prevents them from optimally carrying out their duties and responsibilities.

"I believe they have to find ways and means of training this staff member so that the staff members can be in a position to be able to do their work properly."

The parliamentary standing committee also held a public hearing with the Outjo Town Council, which was given a disclaimer audit opinion.

Outjo local authority's financial records for the Build Together programme were found not up to date, explained as due to a lack of supporting documents that were reportedly destroyed in the fire that burned down the building in 2009.

"The other thing is also the fact that they did not record the investments that they are having in the bank in their financial statements, and those were the basics that we were questioning them on; otherwise, they also did well, and I believe that they are going to improve in the future."

The committee noted in its report that many local authorities employ a financial time frame created for private enterprises as opposed to public institutions.