Auditor General (AG) Junias Kandjeke has given the Opuwo Town Council a disclaimer audit opinion for the financial years ended 30 June for the past three years (2019/2020/2021) due to insufficient appropriate audit evidence provided by the council.
This information was included in the council’s report, which was shared with Nampa on Tuesday.
“Because of the significance of the matter described on the basis of the disclaimer of opinion paragraph, I have not been able to obtain sufficient and appropriate audit evidence to provide the basis of an audit opinion. Accordingly, I do not express an opinion on the financial statements,” Kandjeke stated.
A disclaimer audit opinion is issued when an auditor considers that the information provided by an institution is insufficient, ambiguous, or lacking in trustworthiness.
Kandjeke stated in a detailed report that the auditors discovered that for the financial year 2019, the recomputed Permission to Occupy (PTO) income based on the registers provided by management and tariff rates totalling more than N.dollars 780 000 do not agree with the financial balance of N.dollars 370 000, resulting in a N.dollars 410 000 difference.
“The council is recommended to ensure that it reconciles the information recorded in the accounting system to the supporting documents,” he added.
These discoveries are in addition to the 14 accounting flaws discovered in the council’s records on which the AG based his audit assessment.
Kandjeke claims that Opuwo Town Council overstated their Value Added Tax reconciliation based on the opening balance and returns submitted to the Namibia Revenue Agency (NamRA).
According to the auditor’s report, NamRA returns amounting to N.dollars 2.3 million (2019), N.dollars 2 million (2020), and N.dollars 4.9 million do not correspond to the financial statement balances of N.dollars 3.6 million (2019), N.dollars 4.9 million (2020), and N.dollars 680 000, respectively.
It also said the council presented a restated statement of financial position with restated cash and cash equivalent balances, however, there were no balances indicating the reclassification of the investment to cash and cash equivalent balances.
In addition, Kandjeke reported that the council, for the years under review, did not provide the fixed assets register. As a result, the auditors could not verify the financial statements balance amounting to N.dollars 34 million (2019), N.dollars 42.9 million (2020) and N.dollars 42.9 million (2021).
Moreover, the council failed to provide its work-in-progress ledger for the auditors to make selections and obtain supporting documents to verify the financial statement balance amounting to N.dollars 7.9 million in the financial year 2019.
Source: The Namibia Press Agency