Forensic audit at Airzim

By Takunda Maodza
The Air Zimbabwe board has hired forensic auditors to examine the ailing national airline’s financial status.
Board chairman Mr Jonathan Mr Kadzura confirmed the development in an interview yesterday.
A forensic audit is an examination of an organisation’s economic affairs and strives to establish a comprehensive picture of an entity’s finances – assets, liabilities, total income and cash flow.
It can have several goals, including mapping cash flow/cash transactions, identifying accounting errors and enumerating total assets.
Mr Kadzura said the auditors were hired a month ago.
On whether the audit had anything to do with Dr Chikumba’s resignation, he said: “Absolutely no. It has nothing to do with Peter Chikumba. It is not a witch hunt on anybody.”
The appointment of auditors, Mr Kadzura said, had nothing to do with the workers’ request.
“I made an independent decision driven by the desire to see Air Zimbabwe operating effectively and efficiently,” he said.
The decision to hire BCA Forensic Audit Services follows the resignation of Air Zimbabwe chief executive officer Dr Peter Chikumba at the end of December last year.
Sources at Air Zimbabwe told the Herald yesterday that BCA Audit Services begun work a few weeks ago.
The decision to hire the forensic auditors also follows a request for such an exercise by Air Zimbabwe workers when they appeared before parliament recently.
“The forensic auditors were hired at the end of January. They are doing their job right now. They were introduced to management and staff by board chairman Mr Jonathan Kadzura,” said a source.
“It is true. They (auditors) seek to improve efficiency and to make sure that there are no leakages within the organisation,” he said.
In October last year, Air Zimbabwe hired KPMG to audit the parastatal’s financial records amid allegations that the airline had been prejudiced of about US$2,4 million.
The comptroller and audit-general’s office ordered the audit after questions were raised on how Air Zimbabwe procures its spares, fuel and services planes.
The results of the KPMG audit are yet to be made public.
Last year Government set up an inter-ministerial committee to investigate problems affecting Air Zimbabwe.
Transport, Communication and Infrastructure Development Minister Nicholas Goche chaired the committee whose other members were Finance Minister Tendai Biti, Tourism and Hospitality Industry Ministry Walter Mzembi and State Enterprises and Parastatals Minister Gorden Moyo.
Air Zimbabwe is facing cash flow problems and the situation has been worsened by poor relations between management and staff.
Last year Air Zimbabwe pilots downed tools demanding payment of their salaries, a development that cost the airline millions of dollars after all its planes were grounded.
Earlier in the year (2010), Air Zimbabwe suffered a US$1 million loss because of the Iceland volcanic ash that grounded flights from Europe.
It owed its workers US$9 million as of September last year. Government, which is the major shareholder, is reluctant to inject capital into the struggling national airline.