60. Arrears of Revenue  61. Audit Inspection – Department of Mines, Francistown  An audit inspection was carried out at the above Department and a  number of observations were raised, which were addressed to the  Accounting Officer for his comments, the main ones of which were the  following:-  The arrears of revenue under this Ministry had increased by 15% from P3 817 171 at the beginning of the year to P4 406 322 at the end of the  year under review. The increase was due to slow collections and  additional debts incurred during the year of account. The table below  illustrates slow and ostensible lack of follow-up in collections of revenue  debts by officers of the Ministry.  (a) A company which had been granted a prospecting licence was  in arrears with the payment of fees to the tune of P1 479 305  dating back to 2012. Follow up by the Department to persuade  the company to pay up was not successful as the intermittent  payments were not sufficient to liquidate the debt. In my view,  the continued failure of the company to settle its indebtedness  would suggest that the company was not sufficiently assessed for  financial soundness, as a condition of the grant of the licence in  terms of the Mines and Minerals Act (Cap 66.01). (b) It had been established that a company that had been granted  a license for river sand mining from Shashe Dam, valid from  October 2012 to October 2017, had breached the terms of the  licence by mining outside the lease area, and no action had  been taken against that company. Furthermore, other instances  had been reported of illegal sand mining where fines totalling  P86 000 had been imposed. While this figure is for the Francistown office alone, there appears to be tardiness in the  monitoring of these operations by the Department as the outstanding amount as at 31 March 2018 was P55 200, as per the  arrears of revenue returns submitted to the Accountant General.  48  Current Revenue Balance Collections year Balance Account 01/04/2017 2017/18 % Arrears 31/03/2018 Hydrology Data Fees  40 670  10 000  25  -  30 670  Borehole Cleaning  6 549  -  -  6549  Prospecting Licence  368 200  65 723  18  -  302 477  Mineral Royalties  3 324 114  87 122  3 766 223  4 003 215  Illegal Mining  66 200  11 000  17  -  55 200 