The Sunday Mail
The Government has ordered audits of school funds as headmasters and bursars were in the habit of dipping into school coffers
Harmony Agere – Extra Reporter
The decision by the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education to deploy hundreds of auditors to various schools across the country has rattled many school authorities as they were engaged in rampant looting and corruption, it has emerged.
Primary and Secondary Education Minister, Dr Lazarus Dokora, last week revealed that his ministry had ordered a countrywide schools audit targeting to assess the financial records of at least 80 percent of 8 179 schools in the country before the year ends.
He said while the exercise is yet to go full scale, it is has already begun in some schools and is meant to weed out corruption and create transparency in the administration of school developmental funds.
The audit has already netted its first victim, an assistant accountant at St Aidans Primary School in Chitungwiza who was last week arrested on allegations of misappropriating $27 000.
The news has, therefore, created great panic among headmasters, School Developmental Associations/ Committees (SDA/Cs), bursars and other school authorities who have been engaging in fraudulent activities.
Investigations carried out by The Sunday Mail Extra last week showed that many school authorities were now trying to cover up their tracks before the audit teams reached their respective schools.
Education Coalition Zimbabwe director, Mr Maxwell Rafomoyo, said it is only natural that there is panic since many of the authorities have been committing fraud.
“It is a very good decision for Government to start deploying auditors in schools again, it is a good show of corporate governance and we applaud it because it will improve the quality of our education,” he said.
“It is likely that many schools authorities are in a panic mode now because there are reports of them embezzling funds as well as committing various corrupt offences.
“It is often said that there are no funds when in actual fact funds are there but are leaking through abuse, so the audit is good because it creates transparency and when there is transparency there is full co-operation between parents and the corporate world.”
President of the Zimbabwe Schools Development Associations and Committees, an organisation which monitors SDA/Cs, Mr Claudio Mutasa, acknowledged the rot in schools.
“We have not done studies to show the actual levels of corruption in schools but we know it is there so we welcome this audit because it will restore order and create transparency in the running of schools.
“There are a lot of instruments which guide fiscal management in the running of schools but they have been flouted and we hope this audit will correct that.”
One of the biggest suppliers of school stationery and furniture who declined to be identified confirmed the fright within school authorities as they are running against time to make things right.
“The decision has really rattled feathers and created panic out there, we have received calls from many headmasters and schools who want us to be their suppliers because the ones they had before do not meet the standards of the ministry,” said the supplier.
The supplier said some schools are now busy creating fake vouchers to make up for the money they embezzled.
School authorities have also been accused of hiking levies without Government approval.
While SDA/Cs are allowed to levy parents, the statutory instrument requires that the levies be approved by the secretary for education irrespective of what the parents have approved.
Unfortunately, the secretary has in the majority of cases not approved what the parents have determined to be the requirements of the school.
Sources say flouting of procurement procedures, inflating of invoices and quotations, use of separate receipt books and under-banking are also some of the main sins committed by school authorities.
Investigations show that some school administrators are fraudulently benefiting from various levies for bus, books, sports, and uniforms which are however improperly recorded.
When it comes to procurement, headmasters allegedly take kick-backs to award tenders while some award their own companies supplying contracts at inflated prices.
At boarding schools, funds meant for students’ sundries are allegedly abused by bursars and headmasters.
These allegations are confirmed by the rising cases of headmasters, SDA/C members and bursars charged or convicted of varying levels of fraud for the past five years.
In 2011, an audit carried out by Government at Tapfuma Primary School revealed that the then acting headmaster Mr Artwell Jena, former treasurer Shadreck Mari and bursar Theresa Masango connived to swindle the school of about $39 000.
The three purportedly inflated the school’s development and stationery expenses in order to pocket the remaining difference after paying the actual costs.
In 2013, one Patience Chekera who was working as a bursar at Glen Norah High 1 school allegedly helped herself to $40 000 after she elected to hold on to the school’s development funds which she was supposed to bank.
Allan Wilson High School former bursar Mr Tonderai Nyabereka was together with his assistant sentenced to 15 years in prison after they were convicted of stealing over $20 000 from the school coffers in 2014.
In committing the offence, it was established that Nyabereka and his assistant would receipt school fees paid in cash in the direct deposit books instead of cash subsidiary books, creating an impression that the school fees was deposited into the school’s bank account.
In 2015 one Cavin Gombingo who was a bursar at Karoi Junior School was charged for allegedly embezzling the school of more than $39 000.
Gombingo is said to have used United Nations official receipt books to swindle the school.
Some say these cases are just an eye opener and have gone as far as alleging that the rot is being covered up at district and provincial levels hence calling for those to be audited also.
The development has been blamed on a number of issues such as low remuneration for school stuff and shortage of auditors in the ministry of education.
Some experts, however, say auditors have always been there in the ministry and have been actually paid while doing nothing.
Contacted for comment Dr Dokora would not be drawn into discussing the subject saying the appropriate time to comment would be after the completion of the audit.
“I think we should let them (auditors) do their job at the moment, it (commenting) would be interfering I think, the best time to talk about it would be the time when the results of the audits start coming in.”
Teachers unions have welcomed the audit saying schools should be thoroughly investigated.
“Minister Dokora has done well in trying to follow up on how the headmasters and SDCs carry out school business, which is good for the education sector,” said Teachers Union of Zimbabwe Chief Executive Mr Manuel Nyawo.
It, however, remains to be seen if the ministry has enough resources and manpower to carry out this exercise successfully.
