Easipark to be audited

have agreed to institute an audit into the operations of Easipark.
City business unit development manager, Mr Alois Masepe, who is also a member of the Easipark management committee confirmed yesterday that he and Mr Michael Clarke of EasiHold had agreed to audit the venture.

There has been a series of accusations and counter accusations of corruption and mismanagement of the company’s finances.
“The audit will cover the period March 16 to May 31, 2011. It is only after that audit that we can ascertain the amounts of money generated and the net profit,” he said.

Complaints have been that the city has not received any dividend from the joint venture amid allegations that city officials were not signatories to the Easipark accounts.
“As we speak, I am receiving quotations from audit firms. We have agreed with the partner that we should have an audit,” he said.

Responding to allegations of corruption levelled against him and town clerk Dr Tendai Mahachi at a recent full council meeting, Mr Masepe blamed the councillors for the chaos at Easipark.
He said it was the councillors who had killed the spirit and letter of the joint venture between council and EasiHold of South Africa.

Mr Masepe alleged that the report given by business committee chairperson, Clr Wellington Chikombo to the effect that “all was not well at Easipark” followed his report to the committee detailing defects in the entity’s operations.

“We are the ones who blew the whistle on the poor internal administration at Easipark.
“Councillors did not discover anything at Easipark. They visited the premises on the basis of my report.

“I blew the whistle. The whistle blower is then accused of conniving,” he said.
He said councillors had caused the chaos at Easipark well before the South African partner had officially come to Harare.

He said councillors at the behest of the Harare Municipal Workers’ Union transferred all the 60 workers that were responsible for parking management to the treasury department.
When Easipark started operations it did not have a single city employee.

A clause in the deal stated that officials from EasiHold were supposed to impart knowledge and skills to city employees but when the company started operations there were no city employees to impart the skills to.
He said the idea was that the city employees would be the “ears and eyes” of the city but for reasons “best known” to the councillors they redeployed the employees to treasury.

“This meant EasiHold came and found a gap.
“They made use of the gap and employed their own people. The act of redeployment cut the conduit of information,” he said.

Mr Masepe said at the moment EasiHold management was resisting the deployment of Mr Gadzaimoyo Dehwa as the finance and administration officer.
Councillors want Mr Masepe and Dr Mahachi investigated on allegations of corruption at Easipark.