The Sunday Mail
Pretiosa Chimuti
THE 2019 Auditor-General’s report will be released early this year after Government auditors failed to complete examining all public accounts last year as a result of Covid-19-induced restrictions.
In terms of Section 309 (2) of the Constitution, read with Section 10 of the Audit Office Act, the Auditor-General is required to prepare and submit a report of all Government books to the Minister of Finance, who then tables it in Parliament not later than June 30 of each year.
However, the audit was disrupted by the lockdown, which began on March 30, 2020.
The Auditor-General, Mrs Mildred Chiri, told The Sunday Mail the report will be released during the first quarter of 2021.
“I cannot give you the exact date yet because audits are still in progress.
“We are aiming to have it out during the first quarter of 2021,” she said.
Chairperson of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee Mr Tendai Biti said the report should be released without delay.
“The official reason why the 2019 Auditor-General’s report has not been released is the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Mr Biti.
“We hope that the report will be released early in 2021.
“Releasing the report late creates a lot of problems for us as a committee because we are already behind time as a result of the Covid-19 restrictions.
“This delay will mean that the 2020 report may be delayed as well.”
Last year, the AG released three reports on monitoring of imported goods at ports of entry, SMEDCO’s support for SMEs and management of sewer systems by urban local authorities.
The report on management of sewer systems concluded that there was lack of planning, inspection and maintenance of sewer systems in six of the country’s major towns and cities.
“There was evident lack of proper planning, scoping, inspection, maintenance and evaluation of sewer projects leading to increased rates of sewer blockages,” reads the report.
“In a number of cases there was a correlation between population size and the frequency of sewer blockages.
“The bigger the population size, the higher the number of sewer blockages.
“Resultantly, Harare experienced more blockages, followed by Bulawayo, Chitungwiza, Mutare, Masvingo and Marondera.”
The audit on monitoring of imported goods revealed that “there were no regulations governing quality assessment (of imported goods) as such most of the goods (87 percent) were not being checked for quality, increasing the risk of inferior products flooding the market.”
The 2018 Auditor-General’s Annual report exposed shambolic accounting records in some ministries and the diversion of public funds towards unplanned activities, while in some instances goods procured by some public entities were not delivered.
The Second Republic has, however, made a commitment to use findings from the audits to prosecute those implicated in corrupt practices.
