Accountability for State Funds Starts Before the Audit
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Namibia is having an increasingly important conversation about public money.
Taxpayers are expected to account carefully for their financial affairs. Businesses must keep records, reconcile transactions, back up deductions, comply with tax law and explain discrepancies when questioned.
It is reasonable for citizens to expect the same rigorous culture of financial accountability from institutions entrusted with State funds.
What the Audit Figures Tell Us
The discussion gained extra weight after figures were presented by Blessing Nyandoro, Director of Accrual-Based Audits in the Office of the Auditor-General, at the Bank of Namibia's Internal Audit Awareness Day in June 2026.
Reporting on that presentation stated that about N$75 billion of government expenditure was associated with qualified audit opinions, compared with about N$11 billion that received clean audit opinions.
These figures need careful interpretation. A qualified audit opinion does not mean the money was stolen or disappeared. The Office of the Auditor-General defines a qualified opinion as arising where there is a limitation on the auditor's work, or a disagreement about matters such as accounting policies or their adequacy.
Even so, qualified audit outcomes raise fair questions about financial reporting, supporting documents, controls and whether institutions can show how public resources have been managed.
Professionalising the Accounting Function
One policy option worth examining is whether Namibia could make greater use of professionally designated accountants, including suitably qualified CIBA members, within the State's financial management structures.
To be clear about what this does not mean:
It does not mean replacing the Auditor-General.
It does not mean appointing CIBA members as statutory auditors simply because they belong to CIBA.
It does not mean bypassing Namibia's Public Service recruitment requirements.
It is about something different: strengthening the accounting function before the Auditor-General ever arrives.
Who Does the Accounting Work?
Under section 8 of Namibia's State Finance Act, the Executive Director of an Office, Ministry or Agency is normally the accounting officer. This person is responsible for the receipt, custody, banking, payment and accounting of State money.
The Act also allows accounting functions to be performed by officials under the accounting officer's supervision. In certain circumstances, it lets Treasury assign responsibility for parts of a vote to another person.
So the question is not only who carries the statutory title "Accounting Officer." The more practical question is:
Who performs the accounting work beneath that accountability structure, and what professional standards should apply to them?
Government Already Requires Accounting Competence
Namibia's Public Service recruitment requirements already recognise the importance of formal accounting skills.
For example, a government Accountant Grade 8 vacancy advertised in 2025 required an appropriate NQF Level 6 diploma majoring in accounting, with higher accounting or finance qualifications seen as an advantage.
At management level, a Deputy Director responsible for Finance and Auxiliary Services needed an appropriate NQF Level 7 degree in accounting, finance or commerce, plus substantial experience. The role covered expenditure monitoring, financial statements, budget implementation, audit preparation and dealing with Auditor-General findings.
The current system therefore already recognises academic qualifications and experience. The policy question is whether professional designation, continuing professional development (CPD), enforceable ethical duties and professional body oversight could add another layer of accountability.
Where CIBA Fits
CIBA describes itself as a professional accountancy organisation operating in Namibia and South Africa. In Namibia, its statutory recognition relates specifically to the accounting officer framework under the Close Corporations Act. CIBA also runs a designation structure that spans bookkeeping, accounting, financial management and professional practice.
Professional membership can bring things that an academic qualification alone does not always provide throughout a person's career: CPD, ethical requirements, competency expectations and disciplinary structures.
That opens up several questions for policy discussion:
Could public sector finance positions gradually require or recognise membership of an appropriate professional accountancy organisation, alongside qualifications and experience?
Could accountants responsible for significant public spending be required to complete annual CPD covering the State Finance Act, Treasury Instructions, public procurement, financial reporting, ethics and fraud risk management?
Could professional bodies work with Treasury and the Public Service to build a dedicated public sector competency pathway?
These questions are worth examining.
Professional Roles Must Stay Clearly Separated
Any reform would need to respect Namibia's existing regulatory structure.
CIBA membership should not be confused with registration as a statutory auditor. The Public Accountants' and Auditors' Board (PAAB) currently lists ICAN and ACCA as its accredited professional bodies for the route to PAAB registration.
This means any proposal involving CIBA members should focus on areas where they are properly qualified: accounting, financial management, reporting, internal controls, budget monitoring and related finance functions.
External statutory audit must remain subject to the relevant audit laws and regulations. That separation is essential to protecting independence.
What Could Professionalisation Look Like?
Rather than automatically reserving government accounting posts for members of any single professional body, a broader professionalisation model could be considered.
Such a framework could recognise qualifying professional accountancy organisations against clear, transparent standards. At the same time, it could require anyone entrusted with material State financial responsibilities to show appropriate qualifications, experience, public sector competency, ethical standing and ongoing professional development. It could also set clear consequences when professional standards are breached.
In practice, a professional accountant responsible for State funds could then be accountable to all of the following at once:
their employer
Treasury requirements
legislation
the Auditor-General's scrutiny
a professional code of conduct
That extra professional accountability could be valuable, as long as it is introduced without weakening existing statutory controls.
The Goal Is Prevention, Not Just Better Audits
The Auditor-General performs a critical constitutional accountability function. But an audit, by its nature, looks at transactions and financial statements after the spending has already happened.
A stronger public finance system is one where errors, unsupported transactions, weak reconciliations and control failures are picked up before they become audit findings. That requires competent finance teams inside institutions.
Accountants should not only record expenditure. They should be able to:
question it
understand the approved purpose of the funds
recognise when documentation is inadequate
understand internal controls
flag irregularities
They should also appreciate that State funds are not simply numbers in an accounting system. They are resources entrusted to government on behalf of the public.
Accountability Must Begin Before the Audit Report
Namibia does not necessarily need another layer of bureaucracy to improve financial accountability.
It needs to look at whether the people handling, recording, reconciling and reporting State spending have the professional tools, independence and accountability mechanisms they need to do the job well.
CIBA members could form part of that discussion, alongside other suitably qualified professional accountants and Namibia's existing public sector financial management structures.
The real policy question is bigger than any one professional body:
Should professional accountability become an explicit part of how State funds are managed?
If Namibia expects taxpayers to show where their money came from, why it was spent and whether it was properly accounted for, then the institutions managing public money should be held to an equally high standard.
The conversation about State funds should not start when the Auditor-General finds a problem. It should start with the accountant who processes the first transaction.
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