Zimpapers Logo

Farirai Machivenyika Senior Reporter

Parliament has slammed the Harare City Council for operating without a proper accounting system for the past three years which could be prejudicing the local authority of millions of dollars.

A report of the Public Accounts Committee’s sub-Committee on Local Authorities that was tabled in the National Assembly this week said irregularities cited by the Auditor General Mrs Mildred Chiri in her 2020 report could be traced to the absence of a relevant accounting system.

The city council has been operating without a requisite accounting system since 2019 after a supplier of its Enterprise Resource Planning System, Quill Associates withdrew its software following a contractual wrangle.

Mrs Chiri said in her report that the absence of the requisite ERP could have prejudiced the city of approximately US$190 million which could not be verified then with the sub-committee saying the money could have increased by now.

“All of Harare City’s problems were centred on the absence of a sound ERP. In the absence of a proper accounting system, these irregularities will still continue. At the moment, the prejudice of the amounts involved or the amounts lost could not be quantified. A proper investigative audit would help to numerate the amount lost. The amount Harare City could have been prejudiced is only a tip of the iceberg and because of the absence of ERP, the amount lost is more than what meets the eye,” the report reads.

The sub-committee said the council acted suspiciously by engaging incapacitated and expensive SAGE for US$300 000 and cancelling Quill Associates contract which was worth US$75 000 and was effective and cheaper.

“Harare City Council is currently incapacitated to effectively receipt and bill residents. Harare City Council did not take the matter of abruptly being switched off by Quill Associates to court because they had no case as they were at fault,” the report further reads.

The sub-committee recommended that the council re-engage Quill and reinstall BIQ so that the bank reconciliations could be done and also that US$189 255 035 unverified funds could be substantiated by the Auditor General.

In his debate, the chairperson of the sub-committee and Chegutu West legislator, Cde Dexter Nduna said the cancellation of the original contract with Quill could have been motivated by corruption and selfish reasons.

“It can only be one reason why they terminated that accounting contract and it could be for selfish reasons so that they can pilfer whatever it is that is coming into the coffers of Harare City Council to get what they can and can what they get as individuals,” Cde Nduna said.

He added: “The current situation obtaining at the Harare City Council as we speak is that there is clamouring, there is competition to bring in swipe machines of individuals, executives at council so that they can swipe into their own individual accounts the monies from rate payers of the innocent unsuspecting citizens of Harare Metropolitan City. This is currently what is obtaining Mr. Speaker Sir and this is what has come out as we interrogated Harare City Council as to why they were operating without an accounting system.”

Cde Nduna said they had also reported the matter to the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission to probe the goings on at Town.