The Sunday Mail
Tinashe Farawo
SEVERAL schools countrywide have been running on unaudited books with indications being that some of the learning institutions have gone for 20 years without following the accounting procedure, thereby exposing millions of dollars to abuse by those controlling the funds.
The Sunday Mail has established that Government and missionary schools collect more than $1,2 billion in levies annually and a huge chunk of that amount is being converted to personal use by some school administrators.
Further details show that a significant number of schools were last audited in the late 1990s.
While some schools had their books audited regularly by private auditors, reports indicate that not much was unearthed since the private auditors were allegedly being manipulated to doctor the books.
Government recently ordered a nationwide schools audit which unearthed several malpractices that have seen schools losing millions of dollars over the years through the abuse of development levies.
The audit has also revealed that some school members were taking advantage of the porous administrative systems to milk huge sums of money from the institutions as some senior officials such as heads lacked basic accounting skills.
In some cases, the vice took time to be abated due to the severe shortage of auditors in the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education.
The ministry’s audit department is severely short-staffed and cannot visit many schools at least once a year.
Primary and Secondary Education Minister, Dr Lazarus Dokora admitted that some schools were last audited on the turn of the millennium and this had resulted in the abuse of school levies.
“We have a situation where, due to manpower shortages, some schools were last audited by Government many years ago. This has resulted in the rampant abuse of development levies over the years,” he said.
Minister Dokora said while the education sector was expanding, the audit department was not.
“It was not deliberate that we did not have the auditors. While we were expanding our education sector, the same cannot be said of our audit department. This has led to reluctance because some school authorities have never seen an auditor for the whole duration of their stay at the schools.”
He dismissed allegations that the ongoing audits are witch hunts.
“These audits are meant to improve internal management systems,” he explained.
Academic and University of Zimbabwe education lecture, Professor Caiphas Nziramasanga told The Sunday Mail that it is important to tighten the financial management systems of schools.
He reiterated the importance of involving parents in the education of pupils.
“On the matter of levy scandals, there is need to tighten up the financial management; on appointing staff, there must be supervision strategies and internal auditing mechanisms at all levels,” he said.
Professor Nziramasanga said Dr Dokora must be supported in his quest to bring to book some school authorities who are allegedly abusing money.
