Stuck In A Loop, AG Report Reveals Issues And Lack Of Progress

By Shingirai Vambe

The latest Zim AG report has been released, and the findings are eerily familiar. For yet another year, the same persistent issues and challenges are plaguing the organization, with little to no progress made in addressing them regardless of the Auditor giving an outline for recommendations

The report highlights a cocktail of problems, including list specific issues mentioned in the report. These issues have been carried over from previous years, with some even intensifying in severity. as more and more corruption cases involving the Government of Zimbabwe and procurement continue surface with no meaningful arrest even after being provided with clear cases of corruption

The lack of progress in addressing these challenges is concerning, to say the least. Stakeholders are beginning to question whether anything will ever change. The report has significantly highlighted on incompetency in local authorities, poor nation wide revenue collection, effective procurement procedures and asset mismanagement.

The Post On Sunday recently received list of council staff who have enriched themselves with land in various provinces of the country and majority of them have done so without paying even a single cent, hence the reason for not submitting financial reports to the Auditor General. The President, Emmerson Mnangagwa’s Government has requested for accounting officers to declare their assets, but only a few have done so, some have registered their ill gotten wealth in their relatives names.

Tendai Ruben Mbofana said on his Facebook account, The Auditor General’s reports neither ignite nor cause anything .It has been so from the time of Eric Harid up to now. That’s 40+ years of wasting time and resources.

“No one gets demoted or dismissed, it doesn’t stop budget allocations, it doesn’t prevent borrowing, no one gets arrested, there is no prosecution and so forth. Parliament must try to do a law amendment in the Public Finance Act that causes punishment to any state institution or their board, CEO or Financial Directors that gets an adverse or qualified audit report. State must adopt a Sarbanes Oxley like Act for its state enterprises,” he added.

The latest 2023 OAG report on local authorities has unleashed the public education sector’s grave challenges. This is a critical sector as it sustains the majority of the population, especially the underprivileged families.

Local authorities are crucial in the public education sector value chain, controlling 65% of total schools in Zimbabwe, disaggregated as RDCs (63%) and city councils (2%).

However, local authorities’ investment into the education sector to expand education infrastructure, such as classroom blocks, is inadequate, leading to hot seating arrangements.

Former Kambuzuma Member of Parliament, Willias Madzimure told the Post On Sunday Newspaper that we’ve been hearing the same promises and excuses for years now, it’s time for concrete action and tangible results.

Madzimure said the recurrence is as a result of lack of systematic mechanisms of transparency and accountability across the divide with wide and new gaps allowing those in political offices and government to abuse their positions and power for self enrichments at the expense of poor citizens and their hard earned money which is highly taxed.

Dzivarasekwa Member of Parliament, Edwin Mushoriwa however said there is no provision in the law which punishes bureaucrats who are negligent or has a laissez-faire approach to their work. There is need to amend the Public Finance Management ACT to include punitive measures. Without that the process of auditing will continue, and results will be issued without any noticeable change or progress.

he further highlighted of the country’s economic environment which has been characterized by high inflation and erosion of Local currency which made it difficult for proper planning. 60% of the non delivery in Procurement is attributed to Economic instability.

In 2023, responding to the 2022 A.G report, Suppliers told Parliament that Government was delaying in making payments, resulting in inflated prices and again failure to supply as the amount paid will not be enough to supply the procured goods and services, paid in local Zimbabwe currency.

However with the introduction of the Zimbabwe Gold and its stability so far, a sharp change is expected but only for few good and services which are locally found as most of the goods, equipment and auto mobiles require foreign currency and the Central Bank is failing to adequately fund and or distribute foreign currency to manufactures and suppliers.

Ignorantly, the Permanent secretary in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, George Guvamatanga said the Auditor General, Rheah Kujinga was offside, citing some of the issues were already known.

“We had other things like from other ministries, various medical equipment, so the work of the internal audit had already discovered that there were undelivered goods and communication had already been sent to various ministries and departments to say can you ensure that in line with our regulations and our laws these goods are delivered,” said Guvamatanga.

“So I was then highlighting that by actually highlighting it as a finding, I can safely say that the office of the AG actually misdirected themselves because within the three pillars of control those are actually regarded as issues known to management.

Former Norton Member of Parliament, Themba Mliswa told the Post On Sunday that there is nothing new citizens should expect, with the nature at which parliament is operating on. he said it is failing to play an effective oversight on state enterprises, and cases of corruption are increasing by day with many of them linked with the governing party and the executive.

The report for the year ended December 2023 showed that payments of ZWL$1,7 billion and US$2,3 million were made towards the procurement of vehicles which were never delivered.

The Procurement Regulatory Authority Of Zimbabwe (PRAZ) responded and said, “We have asked for more information from the respective procuring entities, once we get to the route of the issues, we then do the needful in line with the relevant sections of the Public Procurement And Disposal of Public Assets (PPDPA) Act.

Independent analysts and economists, Professor Gift Mugano has echoed the looting spree of the government of the day and total disregard of the country’s need for standard infrastructure, service delivery, education and deteriorating healthcare service in Zimbabwe .

The report show 60% of the adverse and only 2 clean audit opinions of which 71.29% of the 533 audit findings in 2022 were unaddressed and Only 19/ 92 Local Authorities had updated financials as at December 2023 having of them diverting devolution funds from intended use.

Public sector auditing is fundamental in ensuring service delivery by directly addressing citizens’ rights, including access to affordable and quality healthcare, housing, clean and safe water, education, transportation and social security as guaranteed by the International Bill of Rights. Therefore, this section highlights the significant implications of the OAG findings on residents’ social and economic wellbeing across the country.

Instead, both Members of Parliament and Councilors have nothing much to do than to play politics and fattening their own pockets, protecting and working with public and accounting officers for favors and access to land, money and personal assets while the citizens wallow in poverty.