adminSenior Reporter
BENEFICIARIES of the Gimboki South Housing Scheme in Mutare who are believed to have lost millions of dollars have called for an urgent forensic audit of the scheme amid reports that some leaders of the scheme misappropriated funds.
None of the seven groups that make up the Mutare Housing Consortium which is in charge of the housing project has audited books of accounts despite collecting money from the beneficiaries since July 2007.
Beneficiaries are craving to know how much was collected and how it was used.
At an explosive meeting held at the project’s site on Sunday, some of the beneficiaries said external auditors must be called in as well as officers from the serious fraud section. The same call was reiterated by an executive member of the consortium, Mrs Tsuro, who said groups that were refusing to have books audited have skeletons in their closets.
She said leaders of those groups were causing confusing in a bid to scuttle the audit process. The ensuing confusion has forced some beneficiaries to cease making monthly payments towards the servicing of their stands as they fear that they might lose more.
“We cannot keep on making payments because we want certain things clarified to us. First, we want a forensic audit of how the funds we paid since 2007 have been used.
“An audit of the stands is also crucial because there are many cases of double allocation of stands because some group leaders are allocating other people stands at the back of the consortium.
“It is almost 10 years now since the project started, but there is no meaningful progress on the ground. Only a few bad apples who have been ripping us all these years are slowing down progress and if an audit is carried out they will be exposed and charged,” said one of the Phase 2 beneficiaries who requested anonymity.
Mrs Tsuro said several groups were failing to account for the money they collected. “As a consortium we carried an audit recently to ascertain how funds we collected since 2010 were used.
“An audit team from Mutare City Council was part of the process and they are carrying monthly reviews to see how money is being used. We have problems with some of our groups that do not want books audited. These are the people who are throwing spanners in the works. We have instructed beneficiaries on numerous occasions to stop payments to those groups, but it seems our advice has fallen on deaf ears.
“As we speak we have come up with committees that are spearheading progress in all the phases of the project but some leaders of the mentioned groups who misappropriated beneficiaries’ funds are creating confusion.
“It is true that some beneficiaries might have lost millions because people have been paying since 2007, Mrs Tsuro said.
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