THE acting Auditor-General Rheah Kujinga has released a damning report which showed lack of internal controls and weak procurement systems at ministries amid fears resources could be lost in the process.
According to the report, seven ministries failed to respond to audit findings while Treasury paid suppliers in violation of proper procedures exposing financial mismanagement and non-compliance with regulations in various government ministries.
The report said three buses, 60 motor vehicles, 167 laptops and various office furniture items paid for between 2020 and 2023 had not been delivered at the time of concluding the report in June 2024.
There are huge prospects that some of the assets will not be delivered and public funds will be lost in the process and the taxpayer will bear the brunt.
According to the Kujinga report, the Finance ministry, which is in charge of the public purse, was also found wanting.
The audit findings showed the ministry’s Sub-Exchequer Account reconciliation as at December 31, 2022, revealed that total transfers to the main Exchequer Account of ZWL$456 588 392 did not agree with the amount of ZWL$2 004 585 extracted from the Public Financial Management System general ledger, resulting in an unreconciled variance of ZWL$454 583 807.
The receipting cashbook in the Public Financial Management System showed that receipts for the period amounted to ZWL$17 706 035 299 whereas the receipts and disbursements return reflected a total of ZWL$456 588 392. The resultant variance of ZWL$17 249 446 907 remained unreconciled at the time of concluding the audit.
In response, the ministry said the unreconciled variance of ZWL$454 583 807 was as a result of a receipting error.
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The auditors said the ministry did not resubmit a corrected Sub-Exchequer Account reconciliation and did not respond to the issue regarding the variance of ZWL$17 249 446 907.
The report said the ministry was still to receive the seven motor vehicles it paid for from Tsapo Commercial (Pvt) Ltd.
The ministry paid US$425 866 to the contractor on December 30, 2022 and the vehicles had not been delivered at the time of concluding the audit in September 2023.
The ministry said several follow ups were made on the delivery status of the vehicles and the the supplier indicated that they were experiencing supply challenges on the production line. A final demand letter was sent on April 13, 2023 and the supplier responded that delivery will be done in 2 weeks’ time. However, the vehicles had not been delivered as at May 15, 2024.
Among its duties, the Finance ministry is in charge of mobilisation, allocation, management and accounting for public resources. If it can pay US$425 866 and the motor vehicles are not delivered more than a year later, it shows dereliction of duty. If gold rusts, what would iron do, Chaucer would have asked.
It is the same story we have heard over the years as nothing is done to perpetrators.
Under normal circumstances, heads would roll as Parliament would take ministry officials to the cleaners.
However, we are living in abnormal times in which Parliament has lost its oversight role across the political divide. The Zanu PF party has a super majority and an effective whipping system that rallies lawmakers around a particular subject. The opposition Citizens Coalition for Change is a pale shadow of itself after a string of recalls.
The Auditor-General’s report is an indictment on President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration despite its claim of breaking with the past.
