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Zvamaida Murwira Senior Reporter
Government has embarked on an audit of more than 700 private voluntary organisations (PVOs) registered in the country, amid concerns that most of them have deviated from their mandate and are meddling in opposition politics.

In an interview yesterday, Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Deputy Minister Lovemore Matuke said Government noted with concern that some PVOs were deviating from their mandate, while others were not visible.

He said the audit exercise will be completed by October as part of the ministry’s 100-day cycle. Deputy Minister Matuke said Government will rationalise operations of PVOs, amid concerns that some of them were concentrating their work in areas known to be strongholds of opposition parties at the expense of carrying humanitarian aid in an impartial way.

“We are working well with some PVOs, but there are some briefcase NGOs, those that do not stick to their mandate”, he said.

“They get registered on the basis of what they would spelt out to the Government and once they are registered, they do not stick to their mandate.

“We have another category of PVOs that have since ceased to be visible on the ground, we are also looking at all that in our 100-day cycle. Another category of PVOs is those that mobilise resources and channel them through humanitarian aid only in constituencies controlled by the opposition.

“We are saying, there must be harmonisation of activities by these PVOs because we have noted that in one province, you might have several NGOs providing aid, while in other provinces there would be no single NGO.”