Audit office bars 13 workers

on Monday and they were barred from visiting the office until their case is finalised.

President of the Audit Office Trade Union, Mr Michael Makuchete criticised the decision to suspend the 13 saying it was meant to block them from highlighting various issues that were fundamentally wrong in the organisation.

“The suspension has more to do with issues we raised that relates to the mismanagement of the office,” said Mr Makuchete.

“We are saying the office is not capacitated and the result is there for all to see, look at the state of affairs on councils and parastatals, there is chaos because they are not being brought to account because of underfunding of the Audit office and we believe it is deliberate by Treasury.”

When contacted through her secretary, Comptroller and Auditor General Ms Mildred Chiri requested questions to be put in writing. She had not, however, responded to the questions by last night.

In an interview, Mr Makuchete said they were being victimised for exposing the deliberate underfunding of the Office which is not commensurate with other government departments.

He alleged that some managers were getting fuel coupons not only when they were not entitled but when they did not have the vehicles.

“We will be taking the Audit office to court challenging the suspension. It is about the welfare of workers. How can you send an auditor earning US$200 to investigate a case of US$10 million on a local authority or parastatal,” he said.

Mr Makuchete said one reason why most local authorities and parastatals were not performing was that they were not being held to account through audits.

“Most local authorities have not been audited and the reason is that Audit office is not capacitated. You will notice that local authorities like Chitungwiza and others have been accused of financial impropriety and one major reason is because there has not been an audit. We are victims of transparency and accountability, the Audit office is supposed to be the custodian of transparency, they want to conceal that,” he said.

Mr Makuchete denied that they had gone on an industrial action saying they had called for a feedback meeting to brief workers on what had transpired in their meeting with management.