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Senior Reporter
KPMG Chartered Accountants, who were contracted by the Comptroller and Auditor-General’s Office to conduct a forensic and turnaround audit of the ZBC, started work yesterday and are expected to submit a comprehensive audit report within six weeks.
The report is expected to highlight findings, recommend corrective action and make recommendations geared towards better financial management, accountability and corporate governance at the national broadcaster.

This comes as the Harare City Council controversially appointed Camelsa Chartered Accountants to sift through its finances following reports of misappropriation of millions of dollars.

Camelsa started work last week, but many are questioning the prudence of the move given that Camelsa are the city’s traditional auditors hence it’s like asking them to audit themselves.

But Harare Mayor Mr Bernard Manyenyeni yesterday said councillors still believed in the independence of the auditing firm.

“We considered that issue (of credibility), but we still believe they are a professional firm which will carry out an independent audit,” he said. “We also wanted an audit to be carried out without delay, so we wanted to avoid going to tender because it was going to consume more time.”

The firm is expected to give initial feedback to the city next week.

In the council’s special meeting held last month, councillors tasked Mr Manyenyeni, his deputy Mr Thomas Muzuva, chairperson of the audit committee Clr Panganai Charumbira and deputy chairperson of the finance committee Clr Urayayi Mangwiro to appoint a firm to audit the city’s books.

This followed revelations that council’s 18 directors were gobbling over half a million dollars in salaries every month at a time service delivery plummeted to levels where council failed to replace street light bulbs.

There were allegations that city officials could have pocketed more than US$100 million through inflating prices of equipment for the US$144,4 million loan obtained from China for the refurbishment of water and sewage treatment plants which contract was awarded to a Chinese company.

At ZBC, KPMG would be expected to determine ZBC’s adherence to and fulfillment of principles of corporate governance in all aspects, including its interpretation of its mission, adherence to legal or statutory and policy instruments and good practices.

The audit firm would also assess and test systems and detect any instances of corporate malfeasances and inefficiency for both remedial interventions and systems realignment.

It would determine the authenticity and validity of barter trade transactions that ZBC entered with some of its suppliers and customers and measure the extent of potential prejudice the corporation may have suffered through such dealings, if any.

The terms of reference also include quantifying the magnitude of ZBC’s current obligations and likely restructuring costs for the attention of the shareholder, among other expectations.