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Mildred Chiri

Daniel Nemukuyu Senior Reporter—
The Auditor-General’s Office has recommended an investigation into financial irregularities detected in an audit report on the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC), after the commission failed to account for substantial amounts of money. In her report for the financial year ending December 2016, the Auditor-General Mrs Mildred Chiri identified various irregularities, saying the commission’s books of accounts were in shambles.

“The commission was not maintaining proper accounting records and as a result ledger balances were not agreeing to the trial and the financial statements.

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“Management could not reconcile the variances between amounts in the ledgers, the trial balance and the financial statements. The statement of financial position had an imbalance or suspense of $693 611 and the cash flow statement was out of balance by $40 908.”

To that end, Mrs Chiri recommended an investigation in the matter.

“The imbalances should be investigated and resolved,” she said. “The commission should maintain proper books of accounts and consider using a computerised accounting package.”

The commission management admitted that the accounting system was poor, adding that efforts were being made to improve it.

“The observations made are true, however, we are pleased to advise that the commission has introduced a computerised accounting system,” reads ZACC’s response to the audit report. “Efforts are being made to come up with an adjusted trial balance to address the variances.

“We are hindered as the responsible accounting officers have since left the organisation on allegations of criminal abuse of office. The commission is now connected to the PFMS system since May 2016.”

ZACC also failed to properly account for fuel expenditure.

“The commission recognised fuel expenditure amounting to $112 663 during the year ended December 31 2011,” said Mrs Chiri in the report. “Management failed to avail a fuel register or any other documentation of how the fuel had been allocated.

“I was, therefore, unable to determine whether the fuel had been allocated in line with approved rates or whether or not the fuel had been consumed in fulfilling the commission’s mandate.”