Auditor-General: President's Office Abusing State Resources
Several ministries failed to produce documents for auditing purposes such as invoices, receipts and goods received to support payments against the votes
HARARE — A latest report by the Comptroller and Auditor-General, Mildred Chari, shows rampant abuse of state resources by the president’s office, government ministries, state enterprises and parastatals. Parliament now says government spending needs to be controlled as the Zimbabwe economy remains subdued. The report on the 2011 budget appropriations which was tabled in parliament Tuesday shows that several ministries failed to produce documents for auditing purposes such as invoices, receipts and goods received to support payments against the votes. Some ministries failed to maintain proper asset records, circumvented tender procedures and others collected revenue which was not surrendered to treasury. For example, the report shows that the President’s Office paid for assets valued at about 500 thousand dollars without attaching invoices to validate the payments. The report said out of the 15 million dollars expenditure by the Prime Minister’s Office, the office could not provide 24 payment vouchers for auditing. The Comptroller and Auditor–General said it was difficult to prove whether the expenditure was incurred for the intended purpose. It says wasteful expenditure and fraudulent activities were rampant in most ministries and that there was poor management of domestic and foreign travel allowances. The Comptroller and Auditor-General urged ministries and government departments to follow treasury regulations so as to foster accountability in the public sector. Meanwhile, the Speaker of the National Assembly, Jacob Mudenda, today reinstated Bikita West lawmaker; Munyaradzi Kereke, after the Constitutional Court nullified his expulsion from the legislature early October. Kereke was expelled from the House of Assembly after his Zanu-PF party informed Speaker Mudenda that he no longer represented the party’s interests. But Kereke challenged his expulsion resulting in the Constitutional Court nullifying his expulsion. Mudenda announced Kereke’s reinstatement when the National Assembly resumed sitting after a two-week break. Mudenda also said Kereke would serve on the Finance and Economic Planning and Mines and Energy portfolio committees. Kereke was suspended by Zanu-PF after defying a party directive to stand aside for its preferred candidate Elias Musakwa in the July 31 elections. Speaker Mudenda also announced the selection of Jonathan Samkange as chairperson of the Parliamentary Legal Committee. Other members if the committee are Jessie Majome and Tendai Biti from MDC-T and Christopher Kuruneri and Priscah Mupfumira from Zanu-PF.