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Blessings Chidakwa
Herald Reporter
The Office of the Auditor-General and the Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (PRAZ) yesterday exposed the beleaguered Harare City Council for lacking transparency, accountability and effective governance.
During submissions at the Commission of Inquiry into the governance of the Harare City Council, led by Retired High Court Judge, Justice Maphios Cheda, Acting Auditor-General Mrs Rheah Kujinga and PRAZ chief executive Mr Clever Ruswa testified over lack of compliance over legal accounting matters, the lack of a financial system and deviations from laid down procedures over procurement.
Mrs Kujinga described a disturbing pattern of financial mismanagement at the struggling local authority.
“In the Auditor General’s Annual reports, we submitted our findings. The findings include that some of its projects such as the Sunshine City and Rufaro are not being consolidated according to the law.
“We can say there is no financial system to talk of at the Harare City Council. It is a worrisome situation. Harare residents are suffering financial prejudice. There is no compliance at Harare City Council,” she said.
Mr Ruswa also testified with his submissions corroborating the acting Auditor-General’s findings, exposing a dysfunctional Harare City Council without a proper accounting system.
He said the local authority had using the BIQ system for its required enterprise resource planning system, but the service provider switched it off when Harare refused to pay the modest annual fee and since then the council had been operating without following the proper systems.
“For us it is an anomaly for the Harare City Council to operate for close to three years like that.
“The Harare City Council also went on to flout the procurement systems without the authority from PRAZ. They also went to award contracts to suppliers who have higher figures,” he said.
Online Reporter
Bongani Ndlovu