The police force has for some time been criticised for turning the roads into a cash cow by demanding spot fines from motorists, in violation of a three-year-old High Court order.
The disappearance of the records, said the AG, Mildred Chiri, made it difficult for her department to properly audit the money raised from fines. The report, which covers 2011-2013, indicates that at least seven police stations could not account for a whopping 5,033 fines receipt books known as Z69J, an amount that could translate into millions of dollars.
Chiri said the ZRP defended the disappearance of the books on the grounds that they were handled by inexperienced staff. However, checks on the ground by The Zimbabwean showed that police have a thorough system to account for the books, which are normally placed in the custody of senior officials with the rank of sergeant and above.
Critics see the disappearance as a sign that the force is hiding fraudulent and illegal handling of the revenue. This newspaper reported in 2013 that ZRP had removed Police Printers, which now prints the Z69J books, from the quartermaster’s jurisdiction to make it an independent unit in order to avert scrutiny.
According to government regulations, the fines books are supposed to be printed by Government Printers and not the police. “Contrary to Treasury instruction 0206, seven ZRP stations visited destroyed government financial records before audit,” Chiri said in her 304-page report .
Destruction of records reached catastrophic levels during the year to December 31, 2013. “As a result, audit could not verify the revenue collected,” she said in the report that was presented to Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa in January, but obtained by The Zimbabwean this week.
At Featherstone Police Station, 300 Z69J files were missing when auditors arrived. At Chivu Police Station, 404 files had been destroyed, while at Shamva Police Station, 709 files were missing. Bindura Rural police station destroyed 425 and Bindura Urban (Central) 569. Kwekwe Traffic destroyed the highest number – 2,626.
Using some provisions of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, the force has declared that it will press ahead with the controversial spot fines, even after a High Court Judge condemned the practice recently.
“The organisation acknowledges with regrets the observation that some stations have destroyed financial books and records before audit by the Office of the Auditor-General. It is regretted that such stations could not distinguish between internal audits conducted by Police General Headquarters/Ministry of Home Affairs and that of the Auditor General.
“In future, such errors will not take place as the organisation has made it priority to educate and train its personnel to observe Standing Orders and Treasury Instruction 0206 with regard to destruction of financial records,” wrote police management in response to the AG’s findings.
The audit exposed extensive inconsistencies in charges levied against motorists, with some below and others above standard fines as written in the Deposit Fines Schedule. In one incident by Victoria Falls Traffic Police, a motorist was charged $20 for driving a car without a number plate. The actual fine is $5.
At Hwange Traffic Police Station, a motorist was fined $15 for driving without a licence. The actual fine was $20.
Post published in: Human Rights