Mirror Business Reporter

HARARE – There is astounding corruption in many rural and urban councils around the country with managers selling local authority properties to each other and spending devolution funds on salaries and other unauthorised items, the Auditor General has said in her 2022 audit report.
Auditor General Rhea Kujinga’s report was tabled in Parliament last week.
Kujinga said managers are selling council houses to each other, there is abuse of residential stands and financial mismanagement and lack of compliance with international accounting standards.
The report also picked up a lot of untaxed benefits accruing to managers. It is understood that managers are collecting millions through workshop and travel allowances.
The report also complained of poor service delivery in most of the councils.
Kujinga cited Gweru City Council and Bindura Town Council as two of the many local authorities caught on the wrong side of the law.
Gweru City Council for example could not account for ZWL$5, 4 million in expenditure. The Auditor General also queried a variance of ZWL $10, 4 million between the payables balance as per the ledger of ZWL $70 million and the listed balance of ZWL $59, 6 million.
Bindura local authority had the same problems. For example, the local authority committed ZWL $46, 4 million to an asset management company and ended up with a loss of US$104 703. The local authority had unreconciled cash and cash equivalent balances amounting to ZWL $25, 8 million between the financial statements balance of ZWL $44 million and the balance as per bank statement of ZWL $69, 3 million.