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Netone

Lloyd Gumbo : Senior Reporter

The Auditor-General’s Office has appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers to conduct a forensic audit of mobile operator NetOne. The audit firm is expected to start work immediately. The audit follows the unearthing of massive irregularities at the parastatal with the NetOne board suspecting financial impropriety particularly in procurement of goods and services.The audit firm is expected to unearth more shenanigans, sources revealed.

Auditor-General, Mrs Mildred Chiri confirmed the development at the weekend saying other firms had also tendered their bids.

“Yes, we appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers. We expect them to start as soon as they are ready because we have already informed them,” said Mrs Chiri.

NetOne board chairperson, Mr Alex Marufu also confirmed the development last week saying they expected the firm to start work this week.

“The board was advised of the appointment of the auditing firm when we met for our routine board meeting on Friday,” said Mr Marufu.

“We were advised that it is PricewaterhouseCoopers, but the Auditor-General’s Office is yet to officially advise the board in writing. But they confirmed that they have appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers, which is one of the big five auditing firms. We expect the firm to start work next week (this week).

“We expect it to be a month-long exercise. They are looking at areas such as airtime distribution, base station site contracts, fuel procurement and utilisation, among other areas.”

The NetOne board resolved to have a forensic audit after revelations that the firm could have been prejudiced of millions of dollars through underhand dealings in the procurement of hardware and software materials.

The irregularities were unearthed by newly appointed chief finance officer, Mrs Sibusisiwe Ndlovu when she found that processes in the finance department were lax compared to what was generally accepted.

The board subsequently sent chief executive, Mr Reward Kangai and four other top managers on forced leave, to pave way for the audit to guard against compromising the exercise in the event that they were complicit in the scam.

Mr Marufu last month identified some of the companies that could have benefited from the lax in the finance department including a contract with Gemalto for the One Wallet system and the Bopela Group that was constructing cellphone towers, among others.

He said the auditors’ terms of reference would focus on internal controls, payment systems, collection of debts, airtime distribution, payment of salaries and allowances, acquisition and management of base station sites as well as suppliers of interest from January 2010 to December 2015.

“We want to review transactions with a number of entities for evidence of fraud or irregularities. For instance there is a company, we understand is owned by a gentleman called Mr Agrippa Masiyakurima.

“Matters of interest with respect to this company include a deal that was signed possibly a year ago with this company to sell NetOne simcards to 500 000 Zanu-PF youths for which $80 000 was paid in advance as delivery of the service.

“Of the 500 000 cards which were committed, the actual number that was delivered was less than 3 000. This obviously rang alarm bells in the minds of the board. Of the 3 000 that were signed, they were signed as part of a weekend blitz that was launched by NetOne who went across the road and signed up a number of people. This is obviously an area of concern for us.

“We also have some concerns about base stations that are being delivered by the same company called Bopela. I have not, as an individual nor any members of the board, seen any evidence of this contract having gone to tender. We are concerned about this. We are not only looking at this company.

We are also looking at a company called Masimba Holdings, which is doing some work in terms of delivery of base stations,” said Mr Marufu.

He said they were also investigating fuel suppliers such as Puma Energy and Redan as well as international service providers like Gemalto, Nokia Siemens Network, Convergys and Technotree.