Council responds to AG findings

Vusumuzi Dube, Municipal Reporter

BULAWAYO City Council officials have come to the defence of the local authority regarding findings of the Auditor-General on a number of anomalies in its accounts, saying that this was just an issue of paperwork and council had not been prejudiced in any means.

Speaking during a service delivery update meeting last week, Bulawayo Acting Town Clerk, Mrs Sikhangele Zhou said the matter was a mere paper work error which had since been rectified.

According to the Auditor-General, Mrs Mildred Chiri, a car loan agreement to a Bulawayo City Council employee with a value of $34 450 was not approved by the town clerk as per procedure. The agreement was only signed by the employee.

The Auditor-General also revealed that there was no contract for a car loan amounting to $8 743 advanced to another employee.

Mrs Zhou, however, downplayed the findings, revealing that when officials from the Auditor-General’s office initially visited the local authority the unnamed official had an unsigned copy of the loan approving letter but the original signed document was with the human resources director.

“It is not much of an issue, actually we expected it when the Auditor-General was presenting her findings, what happened is that when they came to our office, the said official had the unsigned document but the one which was signed by the town clerk was in the human resources office, we have since rectified this anomaly and sent the necessary document to the Auditor-General’s office.

“Regarding the $8 743 which was also raised by the Auditor-General, there is actually a council resolution where the local authority took over that loan. All those matters have been forwarded to the Auditor-General, if you realise this was to do with our 2015-2016 books therefore these are matters that have long been rectified,” said Mrs Zhou.

Meanwhile, Ward 22 Councillor Rodney Jele has commended the local authority’s audit department saying while they were still behind it was encouraging that the department had committed itself to completing the 2017 and 2018 books.

“What we are calling for is that we be part of the local authorities that have their books up to date, let us not forget that we always strive to be the leaders in local governance,” said Clr Jele.

In her annual report on local authorities, Mrs Chiri said during the year under review, 59 governance issues were noted from local authorities and these related to absence of policies and procedures as well as non-compliance with statutory regulations.

She said there was a need for improvement in accountability in local authorities.