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there was a need for recapitalisation whereby statutory limits were rendered ineffective in light of production and recuperation of operations.”
Zinara yesterday argued that it had only seven employees when the regulations were set but it now employs close to 50 workers.
However, the Act does not lay down staffing levels or any other limit but simply gives a maximum percentage of how many cents in each dollar collected can go on administration and how much must go on roads.
A brief indication of how some money was spent came in a later section on the report complaining that two expenditure vouchers were missing.
One was supporting US$10 100 spent on a trip by a single official, the other was for US$4 000 spent on a cocktail party for the parent ministry. Zinara said it had now fixed that problem at least.
ZINARA
While the Auditor-General made no allegations of any criminal nature, he was worried about the accounting systems used in 2010, some of which, he said, exposed Zinara to irregularities and others gave management a misleading view of what Zinara and its agents were doing.
An example of misleading data was the use of bank statements to record income, rather than receipt books and remittance schedules of agents such as Zimra for tolls, Zimpost for licences and Noczim for fuel levies.
The Auditor-General was also concerned that checks were not as frequent as desirable.
It noted that lack of such an audit system might result in under-remittances, fraud and errors.
The asset register had missing information.
In its replies to the Auditor-General, Zinara generally acknowledged the problems, and in some cases noted the advice as helpful and outlined how it was fixing systems, including getting far better definitions of its relationships with its agents and building a modern computerised accounting system using international standards.
Contacted for comment, Zinara spokesperson Mr Augustine Moyo said the draft audit was not final.
He said the final report should be signed by the Zinara chief executive officer.
“There is a difference between a draft audit report and a final audit report. If that report you are in possession of was not signed by our chief executive officer Mr Frank Chitukutuku, then it is not the actual final report that we are aware of.
“Further to that, the final report does not have the number of irregularities that you are referring to,” he said.
He said Zinara’s asset register was now up to date and records for the vehicles were available at the transport department.
Mr Moyo said Zinara’s audit system was now vibrant.
Zinara collects money for Government’s roads pool and distributes it to councils and the District Development Fund for road maintenance.
Online Reporter