$16m vanishes at CVR

Zvamaida Murwira Senior Reporter
The Central Vehicle Registry has failed to account for about $16,5 million of a revolving fund used to produce vehicle number plates.  There is no documentary evidence showing how the money was used.

The parastatal also breached provisions of the fund’s constitution after it gave interest-free loans of US$11 million to Air Zimbabwe and US$160 000 to the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe.

The vehicle registry again failed to produce documents of the two loan agreements.

In her latest report, Auditor-General Ms Mildred Chiri said the integrity of CVR financial statements was compromised in the absence of complete records.

The New Vehicle Security Registration Number Plate Revolving Fund was established to import blank registration plates of the specifications stipulated in the vehicle registration and licensing regulations and incidental materials for the production of number plates before they are sold to vehicle owners.

“I was unable to obtain sufficient and appropriate audit evidence about the sales figures for number plates amounting to $16,5 million, commission of $890 051 and accounts receivable of $722 818 as there were no sales ledger, sales commission ledger and sales control ledger accounts,” said Ms Chiri in her report.

“Consequently, no monthly sales reconciliations were carried out during the year. This resulted in my failure to substantiate the published figures.”

In its response to audit enquiries about the anomalies, CVR said corrective action had been put in place.

“The relevant ledgers are now being maintained. The challenge was as a result of inadequate staffing. The department is also contemplating introducing Pastel Computerised accounting package,” read the response.

But Ms Chiri said there was no evidence on the ground to confirm that corrective measures had been taken as claimed by the department.

It was noted that the raw materials ledger for number plates did not reflect a take on balance of $866 543, which was reported as closing stock as at December 31, 2011.

“This cast doubts on the reliability of the value of raw materials as at December 31, 2012. The prior year closing stock may have been misrepresented,” read the report.

Ms Chiri said CVR advanced interest free loans to Air Zimbabwe and CAAZ in violation of the fund’s constitution and at the time of audit no repayment had been made.

The audit noted that the fund was making huge profits, yet there was no improvement in service delivery on the part of CVR.

“At the time of the audit, June 30, 2012, there were 6 000 registered vehicles which were not captured in the system due to duplication of chassis numbers, illegible writing, fake registration books and custom clearance certificates,” read the report.