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Fidelis Munyoro

Chief Court Reporter

The secretary of the umbrella body of civil service unions is trying to block the forensic audit of Premier Service Medical Aid Society (PSMAS) that started this week by seeking an urgent temporary injunction in the High Court to keep out the auditors until the High Court has ruled in the main contested case that the audit is legal.

The audit has started with entries from 2018 up to now being scrutinised.

Mr David Dzatsunga yesterday filed an urgent application that listed the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health and Child Care, the Civil Service Commission and PSMAS as respondents. 

Mr Dzatsunga, as the secretary of the Zimbabwe Confederation of Public Sector Unions (ZCPSU), an umbrella trade union for all trade unions that represent Government workers, sits on the board of PSMAS as one of the three civil service representatives and was applying in his capacity as a board member.

In his application, Mr Dzatsunga is seeking the temporary suspension of the authorisation of the audit until  the main application filed at the High Court on Monday is determined. 

 In the main application, Mr Dzatsunga seeks to set aside the letters of April 4 and June 28, 2022, among other relief, arguing that the letters were unlawful and violated his Constitutional rights.

It is also his contention that the letters were written without jurisdiction or lawful authority and the court application cited the Secretary for Health and Child Care as party to the pending litigation. 

The ministry wrote on April 4 to PSMAS advising the medical society that Government was to appoint an auditor.

A follow up letter on June 28 June directed PSMAS to defer its an annual general meeting that was scheduled for June 20, 2022 indefinitely to allow the forensic audit to determine certain natters. 

Unmoved by Mr Dzatsunga’s court application filed this week on Monday and pending before the High Court, the ministry on Tuesday delivered a letter to PSMAS titled: “Forensic Audit Examination-Premier Medical Aid Society and ail its subsidiaries and related entities in Zimbabwe and outside Zimbabwe”.

The letter introduced Ralph Bomrnent -Greenacre & Reynolds as the firm appointed to undertake the forensic examination.

In this case, Mr Dzatsunga contends that the firm was being foisted on PSMAS   because it was not procured by it using its existing procurement procedures and processes.

“The power of first respondent (Secretary for Health) to appoint, give terms of reference and pay from taxpayers ‘money an auditor to audit a private organization (PSMAS) is the subject of the challenge by applicant in HC 4402/2022,” read the application.

He said the instruction for the audit would render any decision by the court on the legality of the audit moot. The High Court can only agree to an urgent application for a temporary injunction if there is likely to be some damage to the applicant that cannot be reversed before the main action is decided.

The type of audit ordered for PSMAS, is a detailed one that looks beyond just whether the accounts balance and looks at issues such as the actual management.

The audit is taking place against the background that PSMAS was deviating from its founding objectives, and had failed in successive years to fulfil its core mandate of healthcare service provision. Currently, the set up of the organisation has a holding company, Premier Service Medical Investments, a mining concern, a micro finance operation and others.

When the subsidiaries were created, they were supposed to be under PSMAS but current proposals see attempts to set up a holding company under a board of trustees with that holding company owning all concerns including PSMAS itself. This means the PSMAS members, those who pay the subscriptions, will not longer own and run their own society.

The position has caused the regulator of medical aid societies, who can act in any medical aid society since they all have to be registered, to order a forensic audit at PSMAS.

The three employer representatives on the PSMAS board, who are appointed by Government as the employer and provider of 80 percent of member subscriptions, have since raised the red flag after they were sidelined on matters of the board.

The three are Deputy Chief Secretary in the Office of the President and Cabinet Mr Martin Rushwaya, representing that office, Mr Pfungwa Kunaka representing Treasury which provides the bulk of the cash, and Dr Tsitsi Choruma representing the Public Service Commission, the employer.

Civil servants recently blasted their unions for trying, unsuccessfully, to blame the Government for the failures at PSMAS, which is supposed to provide medical aid for civil servants, yet PSMAS is independent of Government and belongs to its members, who are mostly civil servants.