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Municipal Reporter
The Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission has launched investigations into the missing US$200 million from Harare City Council coffers after the local authority terminated a contract with its financial software supplier.
Auditor-General, Mrs Mildred Chiri, uncovered the missing funds in her 2020 report, with Parliament having also opened an inquiry into the disappearance of the millions.
The financial chaos at the city council following the abrupt cancellation of a contract with South African company, Quill Associates, that supplied it with an accounting software, is believed to be the cause of the loss.
ZACC spokesperson Mr John Makamure confirmed that investigations into the matter were underway.
“Yes, ZACC is looking into the issue,” he said.
There are allegations of conflict of interests amid revelations that Harare officials, including head of ICT Mr Samson Madzokere’s expenses to South Africa were paid by a company that had tendered to supply the council with another accounting system.
During the Parliamentary inquiry in August this year, Mr Madzokere and some officials had travelled to South Africa on an all-expenses trip paid for by the shortlisted firm.
Mr Madzokere confirmed in an interview that all their expenses to South Africa were paid by the firm, although he said that was part of the tendering process.
“It was actually the third visit out of five,” he said.
“We are supposed to be embarking on a technical evaluation. Our bidding process was very clear that we will embark on three visits out of each of the five firms shortlisted.
“All in all, our visits would be 15 and so far we have done nine. We made it clear to the firms that they are catering for all expenses in terms of travelling and accommodation.”
Our publication could not immediately establish if the other two firms paid for the same visits.
Mr Madzokere said their delegation vetting the shortlisted firms has eight people, but his name was featuring prominently as the head of the team.
“We actually wanted 15 people, but settled for eight,” he said.
“The delegation has representatives from each department in terms of specialty, including finance, procurement, risk, housing and water.”
A sub-committee of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee chaired by Chegutu West legislator Cde Dexter Nduna has already summoned Harare mayor Jacob Mafume and some council executives to explain the anomaly.
Mrs Chiri and managing director of Quill Associates Mr Danie van Heerden also appeared before the sub-Committee.
In her report, Mrs Chiri said shoddy accounting exposed the city to prejudice.
“In terms of the International Public Sector Accounting Standard 1: Presentation of Financial Statements, the council should fairly present financial information and must faithfully represent its affairs,” she said.
“According to the council, trade and other payables to the tune of US$105 542 322 were unverifiable.
“In addition, trade and other payables totalling US$83 712 713 had debit balances and should have been reclassified.
“This suggests that the council might have prepaid or overpaid suppliers and has to recover the same.”
Harare City Council had a contract with Quill Associates that ran from 2006 before it was terminated in 2018 over a US$40 000 dispute.
Since then, council has been keeping its records using a software that is incompatible with the huge transactions handled by the city.
While Mr Madzokere claimed that their South African trip was above board, the council’s legal officer, Ms Alice Zeure, during the parliamentary inquiry confirmed that it was against council policy for employees to receive favours from their contractors.
Mr Mafume also conceded that the cancellation of the contract was improper.
“I was out of office at the time, but on hearing of this issue of cancellation, I would have come to the same conclusion as the committee and the rest of our policy makers (councillors),” he said.
“We felt that there was no need for relations to have to come to this because we are in a worse situation than we were when we had the software and this has caused us problems.”
Mr Mafume said the system was critical in monitoring council executives.
Mrs Chiri recommended to the Committee that the council and Quill Associates engage each other with a view to ironing out their differences.
Both Mr Mafume and Mr van Heerden agreed to the proposals and were given seven days to engage and report back to council.
Online Reporter