Ministers steal cash, cars The Public Accounts parliamentary portfolio committee last Wednesday tabled the third report of Comptroller and Auditor General Midred Chiri ‘s report for the first quarter of financial year 2009 to a stunned House of Assembly.
The report covers 15 ministries among them the ministries of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation; Economic Planning and Investment Promotion; Energy and Power Development; Foreign Affairs; Health and Child Welfare; Higher and Tertiary Education; Labour and Social Services.
The ministries of Local Government, Rural and Urban Development; Media, Information and Publicity; National Housing and Social Amenities; Public Works; Regional Integration and International Cooperation; Science and Technology; Transport, Communication and Infrastructure Development; and Water Resources Development and Management are also covered by the report.
There is stunning congruency on the extent of looting in the 15 and eight other ministries audited earlier, a report of which was tabled in the House on February 4.
The latest report notes that line ministers and their functionaries were stealing money and state assets.
Sacked ministers were leaving with government vehicles, including Mercedes Benz cars and other equipment.
Ghost workers
The report said ministerial accounts have been emptied, the adiminstration of the government payroll is a shambles, replete with ghost workers.
Depleted government departments where being forced to do barter trade as a payment system, and cars were being stripped bare, cannibalised for spares, said the report.
In the Ministry of Housing, said the report, 33 former employees were still on the March 2009 payroll when they had terminated their services with the ministry in July 2008.
The portfolio committee expressed concern about expenditure on traveling and subsistence. It cited as an example the case of one accounting officer in the Health and Child Welfare ministry who granted himself US$2 198. 24 instead of US$438.40 each officer is entitled to during foreign travel.
The report said in Joseph Made’s Ministry of Agriculture Mechanisation and Irrigation Development, $21,738 had been diverted from the agriculture revolving fund “to meet administration and general expenses namely: Ministers business cards, internet router, head office provisions and Ministers hotel bill.”
In the Ministry of Media, Information and Publicity officials ministry failed to validate payment of cash purpotedly to 11 top officials to travel to Bulawayo and
Gweru during the period from 5 to 7 March 2009. They were given $1 570.
“There was also a payment of $512 to Ambassador Hotel that was described as lunch and dinner for two and the purpose was burial of a hero,” said the audit report. “There was neither mention of the name of the hero nor details of the beneficiaries and as such the justification of this payment out of the public funds in the absence of such details remains questionable.”
The audit revealed that two laptops were missing from the ministry’s Munhumutapa Building office from equipment received from the RBZ which included computers and fax machines.
Laptops, vehicles
“The laptops and vehicles were in the possession of former minister, Dr Sikhanyiso Ndlovu. He (George Charamba, information ministry permanent secretary) expressed concern that it was very difficult sometimes for a minister leaving office, who has been using government assets to then be asked by junior officers to surrender them.”
In the ministry of Energy and Power Development, the audit uncovered three payments amounting to $1 030 which were not authorised and the vouchers were neither dated nor stamped.
The audit report say Ignatius Chimbo’s ministry, Local Government, Rural and Urban Development, failed to account for an Independence Day celebrations grant allocated to Matebeleland North province.
The auditors questioned the Foreign Affairs ministry’s claim that it gave $1 776 to officers who took cars to South Africa for repairs.
The report said the former minister of Labour and Social Services July Moyo had refused to surrender a ministry pool vehicle, a Prado SDF018.
The report said “it was not made available for inspection during audit as it was alleged to have been taken by the former minister.”
The audit, which provoked outrage in the Lower House, also unearthed asset stripping by departing officials and said that former minister of Transport, Communications and Infrastructure Development, his deputy minister and the permanent secretary “took with them three vehicles each, which they were using before leaving the Ministry.”
The audit also questioned why Olivia Muchena, the minister of Science and Technology, failed to either report to the police or institute internal investigations with respect to eight Nokia cell phones; three computer laptops; two CPU and a keyboard which which are missing from her ministry.
Systems breakdown
Four ministries namely: Health and Child Welfare, Energy and Power Development, Transport, Communications and Infrastructure Development and Foreign Affairs were examined for unlawfully engaging in barter trade, using government issue fuel as a payment system for goods and services.
Commenting on the audit report, the Public Accounts committee described the document as indicating: “the breakdown of systems of management, accountability and a culture of performance in government.
It urged the government to put in place a policy on movement of vehicles and other assets by ministers when they are reassigned to other ministries.
“The Committee was appalled by the glaring flouting of rules and regulations in the management of cash, public assets and human resources and lack of accountability by government ministries,” the report says.
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