Where did our money go? A citizens’ guide to Zambia’s 2025 audit

The Zambian Economist — Mon, 19 Oct 2026 20:40:46 +0000

A new 26-page guide by economist Lubinda Sinyani explains how Zambia raised and spent public money in 2025, what the auditors found, and the questions citizens can ask next.

By The Zambian Economist Analyst
Based on independent analysis and simplification by Lubinda Sinyani.

Key takeaways

Where Did Our Money Go? is a downloadable, 26-page citizens’ guide to the Auditor General’s report on Zambia’s 2025 accounts, independently analysed and simplified by Lubinda Sinyani.
Government received K218.4 billion, including borrowing, and spent K216.3 billion. The resulting K2.1 billion cash surplus should not be read as a profit or a borrowing-free fiscal surplus.
Staff pay and financial charges and principal payments together accounted for about K53 of every K100 spent.
The guide explains how funding shortfalls, unpaid bills and weak controls affect services. Amounts flagged by auditors are not automatically money stolen or permanently lost.
This is independent analysis, not an official OAG publication or endorsement. Links to both the guide and the original report appear below.

Zambia’s 2025 public accounts are easier to understand when the national totals are connected to a hospital waiting for equipment, a supplier waiting for payment or a community waiting for a borehole.

That is the purpose of Where Did Our Money Go?, a citizens’ guide independently analysed and simplified by economist, researcher and development consultant Lubinda Sinyani. It turns the more than 250-page Auditor General’s report into 26 pages organised around the budget, public services and practical follow-up questions.

Download “Where Did Our Money Go?”: the independent citizens’ guide to the 2025 Auditor General’s report (PDF, 26 pages)

First, understand what came in and what went out

Government’s total receipts reached K218.42 billion in 2025 against a K217.11 billion plan. Payments were K216.30 billion against a final expenditure budget of K250.68 billion, after supplementary approvals.

The difference between receipts and payments was a K2.11 billion cash surplus. But receipts included loans. A positive balance in this statement therefore does not establish that Zambia financed its spending without borrowing.

Domestic financing illustrates the point: it reached K26.00 billion against K15.36 billion planned. The guide presents this alongside tax performance and external-financing shortfalls, helping readers distinguish money raised through taxation from money borrowed.

2025 public accounts, rounded from Statement B in the Auditor General’s report
Measure	Amount	How to read it
Total receipts	K218.42bn	Includes taxes, other receipts, grants and borrowing
Total payments	K216.30bn	Cash paid during the year
Cash surplus	K2.11bn	Receipts less payments; borrowing is included in receipts
Final expenditure budget	K250.68bn	Approved spending after supplementary provisions

Why K53 in every K100 matters

Personal emoluments accounted for K58.25 billion. A further K56.68 billion went to the statement’s category of financial charges and principal payments, described in the guide in plain terms as debt interest and repayments.

Together, those two categories represented about 53% of actual payments. This is a calculation from the spending statement, not an audit finding of waste. Public salaries pay for services, while debt obligations also have to be met.

The ratio shows why the composition of spending matters. A large national budget does not mean the same amount is available for new facilities, medicines or equipment. Readers need to examine the amounts released to each institution and what those releases delivered.

A budget approval is not a cash release

The guide distinguishes the budget Parliament approved from the money institutions actually received. Its sector summaries show Health receiving about 79% of its authorised budget, Agriculture 60%, and Fisheries and Livestock 54%.

Those percentages refer to the respective budget-release comparisons. They should not be mistaken for each institution’s share of the national budget or, in Health’s case, a complete account of all funding sources: the guide separately identifies receipts from cooperating partners, NHIMA and other sources.

Partial releases can disrupt planned work. Yet a funding shortfall cannot explain every procurement or record-keeping failure. A useful reading of the audit asks two questions separately: did the money arrive, and was the money that arrived managed properly?

Unpaid bills are different from missing money

The guide groups roughly K4.26 billion in unpaid bills across institutions covered by its analysis. That is the analyst’s compilation of reported obligations, not a separately certified government-wide arrears total.

Health alone accounted for K3.56 billion in outstanding obligations at 31 December 2025, including K1.57 billion owed to suppliers. The guide also describes bills for prisoners’ food and longstanding staff-benefit obligations.

For a small business, an unpaid invoice can leave cash tied up while wages and financing costs continue. That makes arrears an economic concern even when the transaction is legitimate. Clearing a valid debt and recovering an irregular payment are different actions and should be reported separately.

Our first analysis of the 2025 audit findings examines health obligations, mining penalties and farm-input controls in more detail.

What the findings mean close to home

The guide’s value is its sector-by-sector approach. A reader interested in schools can turn to curriculum materials and construction. A farmer can look at beneficiary eligibility and loan recovery. A supplier can examine unpaid bills and procurement.

In water, for example, the guide records 374 new boreholes drilled against a target of 947, and 103 rehabilitated against a target of 500. These are delivery measures, not amounts stolen. They give communities something concrete to ask about: which planned works were funded, which were completed and what remains outstanding?

Mining presents a different problem. The report recorded K626.64 million in penalty fees uncollected at 31 August 2026. In that case, the question is what happened after the penalties were imposed and whether enforcement or collection followed.

The figures should retain their dates. An issue unresolved at the audit’s cut-off may have changed since then; publication alone does not establish its current recovery or completion status.

Does a clean audit opinion mean there were no problems?

No. The favourable opinion concerns whether the national financial statements were fairly presented under the applicable accounting framework. The detailed findings examine shortcomings within institutions.

The report contains 27 unresolved audit-finding paragraphs, rather than a count of every individual transaction questioned. Some paragraphs cover several findings. The guide helps explain why a favourable opinion and serious control failures can appear in the same report.

Readers can also use our plain-language explanation of audit terminology. The Constituency Development Fund is reported separately; see our CDF audit explainer.

From reading the report to asking useful questions

Sinyani’s proposed priorities include linking payroll and budget controls, verifying beneficiary records and publishing a schedule for clearing arrears. These are his independent recommendations and should be distinguished from the Auditor General’s own recommendations.

Citizens do not need to resolve the whole national account to use the guide. Start with one institution or project and ask:

What was approved, what was released and what was delivered?
What explanation did management provide, and what evidence was supplied?
Has an unpaid amount been settled or recovered since the reported cut-off?
Who is responsible for the next action, and when should it be completed?

For businesses and investors, the same approach replaces a broad judgement about government with evidence about payment practices, contract delivery and follow-up. For oversight bodies, it offers a way to explain progress in terms the public can check.

Download the guide and compare it with the source

Read or download the 26-page citizens’ guide by Lubinda Sinyani.

Download the complete official Auditor General’s report on the 2025 accounts.

Source and independence note: this article draws on the supplied citizens’ guide, particularly pages 2–6, 12–16, 18 and 22–24, with the national accounts figures checked against Statement B on printed page 5 of the original report. The guide is independent analysis by Lubinda Sinyani, not an official publication of the Office of the Auditor General, and states that it has not been reviewed or endorsed by that Office. Analyst groupings are indicative; audit findings are not automatically proven losses or criminal findings. Use the original report for formal or official purposes.

About the analyst: Lubinda Sinyani is an economist, researcher and development consultant. The guide describes his experience in public-sector audit, research and simplifying audit reports for citizens. The analysis is presented in his independent consulting capacity.

Photograph: Lubinda Sinyani, author of the independent citizens’ guide. Photograph: The Zambian Economist.

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