Suburban
Peter Tanyanyiwa Suburban Reporter
THE City of Harare’s Audit Committee has been urged to come up with strategies to plug all loopholes responsible for financial leakages in the municipality.
Last week, council’s Audit Committee held a workshop to discuss ways of enhancing good governance in the municipality in the face of disturbing reports of the local authority’s failure to account for money and equipment.
Harare has failed to give an explanation over the disappearance of the US$190 million which could not be accounted for by the Auditor-General Mrs Mildred Chiri in her 2020 audit report.
Parliament’s Public Accounts sub-committee on local authorities has since ordered the City of Harare to submit financial statements of its companies, as the sub-committee continues its probe into what happened to the US$190 million.
Council lost track of the money after it cancelled a contract it had with a South African company, Quill Associates, that supplied it with an accounting software and Mrs Chiri was concerned that no one could tell her what the large sum had been spent on and feared prepayments for goods or services that were never delivered or overpayments may have been made.
Acting town clerk Engineer Phakamile Mabhena Moyo and council IT manager Mr Samson Madzokere appeared before the sub-committee two weeks ago where they were issued with the directive.
The council companies include Harare Quarry, Rufaro Marketing and EasyPark, among others.
Speaking at the Audit Committee workshop, Harare Mayor Jacob Mafume said corruption has seen the city losing money that could have helped improve service delivery.
He implored the Audit Committee to work tirelessly to close all possible leakages.
“Council will not hesitate to act against workers who are corrupt as this has seen the local authority lose money. We need to look at our systems and act to arrest leakages and as audit, such activities need to be our must dos, as the internal eyes for council,” said Councillor Mafume.
