The Sunday Mail
Two former Cabinet ministers and 35 senior Government officials are being investigated for wrecking State assets worth millions of dollars, including top-of-the-range vehicles.
If negligence is proved, they will be ordered to replace the property or pay for repairs.
Ex-ministers Elton Mangoma (Energy and Power Development) and Tapiwa Mashakada (Economic Planning and Investment Promotion) are scheduled to appear before a board of inquiry, charged with damaging Government vehicles in road accidents between 2009 and 2010.
That inquiry is led by the Economic Planning Ministry, which Mr Mangoma headed as minister in 2009 before being succeeded by Mr Mashakada in 2010 when he was assigned to the Energy portfolio.
The vehicle allocated to Mr Mangoma, a Toyota Prado, was taken to a local garage after the accident but has never been repaired.
And 35 senior officials will answer to various charges, among them driving Government vehicles without licences and damaging them in road traffic accidents.
Section 12(b) of the Public Finance Management Act (Chapter 22:19) — read with Treasury Instruction 2302 — mandates ministries to investigate State property damage or loss.
A board of inquiry should be convened within seven days of an accident and the details forwarded to the accounting officer within 21 days.
The accounting officer will then escalate the matter to the relevant ministry’s Permanent Secretary who will, in turn, order the individual responsible to replace the property or pay for repairs.
In her 2013 audit report, Comptroller and Auditor-General Mrs Mildred Chiri said there were indications of “lack of control over management” of Government assets and this would continue to cost authorities huge sums.
“Boards of inquiry for Prado TCE-390 and a Peugeot 406 registration (number) AAO-8296, which were involved in accidents in 2009 and 2010, respectively, were not conducted.
“. . . Boards of inquiry should be done within stipulated time-frames by properly constituted board committees as per internal management circular No 1 of 2007.”
The Economic Planning Ministry indicated that a board of inquiry would investigate Messrs Mangoma and Mashakada.
“Boards of inquiry for Prado TCE 390 and Peugeot 406 registration (number) AA0 8296 had not been conducted as at September 30, 2013.
“These two vehicles were being used by two former Ministers of Economic Planning and Investment Promotion.
“The ministry has written to Parliament, seeking guidance on conducting the boards. Now the new ministry (Economic Planning) is handling this issue.”
The audit also revealed that the Lands and Rural Resettlement Ministry was yet to investigate 27 cases dating back to 2007.
In one case, an acting head of department based in Bulawayo was car-jacked on August 28, 2008 while driving a Government vehicle.
It was discovered that he had neither a driver’s licence nor authorisation to drive ministry vehicles.
His bosses attributed their failure to investigate to inadequate resources.
