By Correspondent
The Public Accounts Committee sought to establish the extent to which Harare City Council had addressed audit observations made in the 2020 Auditor-General’s Report by implementing recommendations made by the Auditor-General.
Committee Recommendations
-Harare City Council should by 31 January, 2023 engage Quill and reinstall BIQ so that the bank reconciliations could be done and also that US$189 255 035 unverified funds could be substantiated by the Auditor General.
- Harare City Council should by 31 January, 2023, get a proper accounting system that has capacity to serve the city’s huge figures and curb continued mismanagement of public funds.
-ZACC should by 28 February, 2023, probe Harare City Tender Committee on why they were getting the expenses of their international meetings paid by bidders against Section 84 (2) of Procurement Regulations Act.
- Harare City Council should from 1 January 2023 and going forward, exercise its powers to audit and access financial statements of all its subsidiaries. The council should consolidate all entities under its control to comply with International Public Sector Accounting Standards.
- ZACC should by 31 January 2023, probe why Harare City led by IT manager Mr. Madzokere cancelled an effective and cheap BIQ system costing US 75 000 and engaged an incapacitated and non-functioning SAGE which was costing US$300 000.
Conclusion
The Committee expressed dismay on how and why a big council such as Harare City is being run without a functioning Enterprise Resource Planning System. In this respect, the Committee urgently expects city officials to hastily re-engage Quill Associates for BIQ system to recover funds unaccounted for, restore sanity, transparency and efficiency to avoid continued financial hemorrhage in the city’s operations.