Auditor General findings on revenue collection in Zambia

Who audits revenue

The Office of the Auditor General publishes main reports on the accounts of the Republic, along with parastatal, local authority, performance and special reports ². Its performance audit list read on 24 October 2026 had no report on ZRA, customs or tax revenue ⁸.

Acting Auditor General Patricia Malaila released the report on the accounts for the year ended 31 December 2025 in October 2026 ¹. The office said it found weaknesses in revenue collection across ministries, provinces and spending agencies, including K626.64 million in uncollected mining penalties ¹. It urged Controlling Officers to improve revenue collection ¹.

Findings in the report for 2024

The Auditor General's report on 2024 found that K4.39 billion in tax liabilities at ZRA remained unpaid, as reported by Augustine Sichula of Zambia Monitor on 3 October 2025 ³. It found K10.9 million in transit taxes at risk from poor monitoring of goods leaving the country ³.

Other revenue items in the same report included K1.32 billion in outstanding ground rent and K177.9 million in other uncollected revenue at the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources ³. The Zambia Monitor report did not carry a ZRA response ³.

Findings in the report for 2023

Acting Auditor General Ron Mwambwa presented the report on 2023, as reported by Augustine Sichula of Zambia Monitor on 8 October 2024 ⁴. Uncollected tax arrears fell from K97.86 billion in 2022 to K66.99 billion in 2023 ^4,7. Uncollected taxes rose from K68.91 million to K2.44 billion, and revenue losses rose from K25.59 million to K69.69 million ⁴. Unaccounted revenue fell from K53.78 million to K638,000 ⁴.

The report said revenue collection systems worked in silos and called for integration to stop revenue leakages ⁴. The article carried no response from ZRA or any other revenue body ⁴.

The official report text, signed by Mwambwa as Acting Auditor General, gives the 2023 arrears as K66,992,800,000 and says that figure came from the ZRA Annual Report for 2023 ⁷. On customs it lists 88 entries worth K15,891,463 that were assessed but not paid ⁷. It says 194 transit declarations with guarantees of K53,980,245 had entered Zambia but not exited, and that there was no evidence ZRA had redeemed the bonds as at 31 August 2024 ⁷.

Government follow-up on non-tax revenue

In October 2024 the government said it was pursuing more than K1 billion in unremitted non-tax revenue identified in the Auditor General's report, as reported by Bumba Mulenga of Zambia Monitor ⁵. An Accountant General report showed K1,078,158,586.39 outstanding as of June 2024 ⁵. Finance Minister Situmbeko Musokotwane said the government would publish the names of those owing and set a deadline of the end of October 2024 ⁵. This revenue is outside ZRA's tax collections ⁵.

Bonds, transit and the ZRA response

In September 2024 ZRA Commissioner General Dingani Banda said Auditor General reports had repeatedly flagged irregularities in bond removals and transit transactions guaranteed by private firms, including insurers, as reported by Zambia Monitor ⁶. He said these contributed to revenue leakages ⁶.

Banda presented ZRA's E-Bonds system, which automates bond issuance, as the response. Phase one had started and phase two was due by December 2024 ⁶. This guide did not find a published source confirming that phase two was completed.