Acting Auditor General Malaila Calls for Prudent Budgeting to Protect Core Audit Work

The Zambian Economist — Tue, 06 Oct 2026 18:29:11 +0000

The Office of the Auditor General has closed its budget preparation meeting with a clear instruction from its acting head: protect the core audit work first, and justify every other kwacha.

By The Zambian Economist Analyst

Key takeaways

The Office of the Auditor General (OAG) has concluded its budget preparation meeting, with Acting Auditor General Patricia Malaila closing the session.
Ms Malaila asked staff to prioritise carefully, cost realistically and use resources responsibly so that core audit functions are protected despite budget constraints.
She said every budget provision must be justified, tied to institutional priorities and aimed at measurable results.
The meeting also stressed risk-based auditing, follow-up of audit recommendations and support for national priorities under the Grow Zambia Agenda.
The OAG has not published the size of its budget request, so the test will come when allocations appear in the 2027 Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure.

The institution that checks how government spends public money has turned the same scrutiny on itself. The Office of the Auditor General has concluded its Budget Preparation Meeting, and the message from the top was about discipline rather than expansion.

Closing the meeting, Acting Auditor General Ms Patricia Malaila called for prudent prioritisation, realistic costing and responsible use of resources. Her stated aim was to keep the office’s core audit functions protected even where the money is tight.

She went further. Every budget provision, she told participants, must be justified, linked to institutional priorities and focused on delivering measurable results.

Why the auditor’s own budget matters

The Auditor General’s mandate comes from the Constitution, which requires the office to audit the accounts of State organs, State institutions, provincial administrations, local authorities and programmes funded with public money. The reports it produces are the main evidence Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee uses to question controlling officers about missing funds, unretired imprests and unsupported payments.

That work costs money. Auditors travel to districts, verify projects on site and review procurement files across ministries and councils. When an audit office is underfunded, the first casualties tend to be field verification and follow-up, which are the parts of the job most likely to recover money or stop repeat irregularities. Ms Malaila’s instruction to protect “core audit functions” reads as a direct response to that risk.

Readers who want to understand what the office actually produces can start with our plain-language guide to the Auditor General’s report.

Risk-based auditing and follow-up

The meeting also stressed two working methods.

Risk-based auditing

Risk-based auditing directs scarce audit hours to the areas where losses are most likely or most costly, such as large procurement contracts, revenue collection points and decentralised funds. With a constrained budget, the office cannot audit everything with equal depth, so choosing where to look becomes a budgeting decision in its own right. Our explainer on how Zambia audits the Constituency Development Fund shows why decentralised spending has become one of those high-risk areas.

Following up recommendations

An audit query has limited value if nobody checks whether it was resolved. Year after year, Auditor General reports record issues that were raised before and remain open. Effective follow-up means tracking whether controlling officers recover funds, discipline officers or fix weak controls, and reporting back when they do not.

Links to the Grow Zambia Agenda

Participants were also asked to support national priorities under the Grow Zambia Agenda. Government has framed its second-term programme around jobs, investment and higher domestic revenue, and Cabinet’s 2027 budget priorities put stronger tax compliance and deficit reduction at the centre of the plan.

Audit is part of that equation. Money that leaks through irregular payments or unfinished contracts is money the Treasury must replace through borrowing or new taxes. Investors also read audit findings as a signal of how well public money is managed, a point the office made when it linked accountability to investment at the Agricultural and Commercial Show.

An office still waiting for a substantive head

The meeting comes during a period of leadership uncertainty. The Constitutional Court on 21 August 2026 ordered Dr Ron Mwambwa to vacate the office after finding his appointment unconstitutional, as we reported at the time. Our analysis of how the office reached this point traces the problem to the State Audit Commission Act of 2016, which has never been brought into force.

Budget discipline cannot fix that gap. It can, however, keep the audit programme running while the appointment question is settled.

What to watch

Allocation: the OAG has not disclosed its budget request. The figure will appear in the 2027 Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure once tabled in the National Assembly.
Coverage: whether the next annual reports cover as many ministries, councils and funds as previous years, or narrow under budget pressure.
Follow-up: whether the office publishes clearer tracking of past recommendations and the amounts recovered.
Leadership: progress on bringing the State Audit Commission into operation and appointing a substantive Auditor General.

Implications

For business: suppliers and contractors to government should expect audit attention to concentrate on high-value and high-risk contracts. Clean documentation is the cheapest protection.

For investors: a well-funded, independent audit office is one of the indicators lenders and rating agencies watch when judging fiscal governance.

For citizens: the Auditor General’s reports remain the most detailed public record of how tax money is spent. A budget that protects field audits protects that record.

More from our Auditor General Explained hub and Leadership & Governance coverage.

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