Online Reporter
Farirai Machivenyika
Senior Reporter
CASES of poor corporate governance continue to blight operations of local authorities, with the Auditor General, Mrs Vimbai Chikwenhere, recording a 43 percent increase in such cases last year as compared to 2024.
The AG’s 2025 Audit Report was tabled in the National Assembly by Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube this week.
“There was a marked increase of approximately 43 percent in governance issues per audited local authority, after adjusting for the number of local authorities audited, from 235 issues across 132 accounts in 2024 to 245 issues across 96 accounts.
“In this report, governance weaknesses continue to be prevalent due to the non-recognition and valuation of assets, instances of weak internal control over inventory, compliance with laws and regulations, cash management, absence of bank reconciliations, unsupported adjustments, incomplete records and non-accounting for schools by Rural District Councils.
‘In addition, the majority of local authorities were lagging in embracing technology as most of their business processes were still manual or partially automated,” she said.
Mrs Chikwenhere said the lack of full automation of accounting systems resulted in late submission of financial statements, and due to lapse of time, document retention is compromised, resulting in incomplete records.
“In light of the above, local authorities and those charged with governance are therefore encouraged to embrace Government’s thrust on implementation of information communication technology,” the AG said.
