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Death threats against AG’s Office officials condemned

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The National Assembly has condemned alleged death threats against officials of the Auditor-General’s(AG) Office.

Speaker Baleka Mbete says this is an attempt to undermine the constitutional powers of Chapter 9 institutions.

Alleged death threats against the AG’s staff who were auditing the books of the Ethekwini Municipality surfaced recently.

This forced the KwaZulu-Natal Co-operative Governance Department to establish an investigative team to probe the allegations.

Parliament says Mbete’s concern over the allegations comes after she had a teleconference with Auditor General Kimi Makwetu, Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Zweli Mkhize and Chairperson of the Standing Committee on the Auditor General Vincent Smith.

It says the teleconference came after Smith wrote a letter to the Speaker about the alleged threats.

Their engagement comes just two days after the National Assembly passed the Public Audit Amendment Bill which will strengthen the powers of the Auditor General.

One of those powers would be for the AG to issue a certificate for accounting officers or officials to be personally liable and repay public funds that were lost due to mismanagement of public funds and transgressing the Public Finance Management Act or PFMA.

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