Chronicle Editor
Patrick Chitumba, [email protected]
GWERU City Council (GCC) is still using the Promun accounting system despite a damning report from Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which criticised it as inadequate for the city’s financial management needs.
The PAC report brought to the fore substantial financial challenges within GCC, citing delays in submitting financial statements, staff shortages, and reliance on outdated systems as major barriers to transparency and accountability in managing public resources. The local authority has struggled to submit financial statements for the period between 2020 and 2022, raising concerns over financial oversight.
To cope with the backlog, GCC resorted to recruiting students and graduate trainees to manually reconcile bank transactions, a time-consuming and error-prone process. The PAC expressed concern over this approach, warning that it compromises accuracy and accountability.
Adding to these challenges, GCC continues to rely on the outdated Promun accounting system, which PAC described as inadequate for handling the council’s high transaction volumes.
The committee said given the scale of operations, Promun is insufficient and recommended an upgrade to a more robust system by December last year to improve efficiency and ensure timely financial reporting.
The PAC further noted that critical positions in the council’s finance department remain unfilled, with key roles being occupied in an acting capacity. It warned that this situation undermines accountability and efficiency, calling on GCC to modernise its accounting systems, fill essential finance roles, and implement strong technical infrastructure to restore public trust.
In an interview yesterday, Gweru Mayor Councillor Martin Chivhoko acknowledged the PAC report and assured residents that the local authority is working towards implementing some of its recommendations.
“To begin with, Gweru City Council’s financial statements are now in order. As we speak, we have managed to audit documents covering 2020 to 2023, and we are now working on the 2024 audit,” he said.
On the continued use of Promun, Clr Chivhoko confirmed that the system remains in place despite its limitations.
“Council still uses Promun. It is a robust system, but its main drawback is that it only processes transactions up to trial balance,” he said.
A trial balance is a list of all general ledger accounts and their corresponding debit or credit balances at a specific point in time. It is a crucial step in the accounting process, ensuring that debits equal credits and helping to identify any errors or discrepancies.
To address this shortcoming, Clr Chivhoko revealed that GCC is exploring add-on Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems to cover the functions not included in Promun.
“ERPs are integrated software solutions that manage and automate various business functions, including accounting. We are actively looking into implementing them to enhance our financial management processes,” he said.
Clr Chivhoko said public funds are being managed properly, pointing to the council’s progress in bringing final accounts up to date as evidence of improved financial oversight.
In addition, GCC is making strides in recruiting heads of departments and middle-level managers to ease the workload and meet financial reporting deadlines.
Clr Chivhoko said the resolution of these issues is critical for ensuring compliance and, more importantly, guaranteeing that public funds are handled transparently and efficiently.
Online Reporter