The Malagasy Court of Auditors presented its annual report to an audience of officials on Tuesday, December 14, but also of citizens curious to know how public funds were spent. If the ceremony itself was a success in terms of transparency, the results of audits are much more worrying, revealing losses of public revenue, with serious consequences for the country’s finances.
From our correspondent in Antananarivo,
As every year, the ceremony, broadcast live on the national television channel, was also open to the public. A desire for systematic transparency, which has become rare these days, and which was widely welcomed by the audience, like Professor Fano Andriamahefazafy, economist at the University of Antananarivo.
” It’s a good thing in terms of transparency, in terms of accountability to citizens. I even find that it is not valued enough by the various officials, in particular by the national representationsemphasizes Fano Andriamahefazafy. Few parliamentarians were present today, which is a shame. »
Many “ anomalies »
As for the content of the annual report, the latter raises lots of anomalies “, explains the president of the Court of Auditors, Jean de Dieu Rakotondramihamina. Starting with the gold mining sector, singled out for its lax end-to-end management of the chain.
“ We discovered that there is a lack of traceability, at the level of production, transport, and especially at the level of the export of gold, says the President of the Court of Auditors. There is really a very large gap between the gold that has been declared to the Ministry in charge of Mines and the value of gold declared at the international level. For the year 2021, for example, there is a discrepancy of 4.5 tons of gold. We can estimate this shortfall for the State at 780 billion ariarys (170 million euros) concerning the repatriation of foreign currency. »
Faulty management of public policies within decentralized communities, chronic delays in the execution of finance laws… so many subjects highlighted by the Court of Auditors, which do not respect the regulations and remain an obstacle to the good governance.
Moreover, as the president of the institution reminded us, “ the Court of Auditors does not have the power to prosecute the officials involved. Only competent bodies can do this “. The ball is now in the court of the Independent Anti-Corruption Office, anti-corruption centers, or the Illicit Asset Recovery Agency.
Despite their budget more than halved since 2019, the financial magistrates of the Court of Auditors have once again shown their ability and willingness to control and identify shortcomings in the management of public money.