AG report opens can of worms

By The Standard | Jul. 5, 2015

The Zimbabwe National Roads Authority management engaged in shocking abuse of funds, a report by Auditor-General Mildred Chiri has revealed.

BY TINASHE SIBANDA

Chiri, in her 2014 report that has since been presented before the national assembly, reveals that Zinara’s chief executive officer at the time, Frank Chitukutuku received a salary increase and allowances without the approval of either the parent ministry or the board.

“Executive contracts finding was that there was no evidence of approval for the increase in the chief executive officer’s salary on his contract of employment paid from the period July 1 to December 31 2013,” Chiri said in her findings.

She said in addition, the CEO was also getting a representation allowance every month which was not on his contract of employment.

“No deemed vehicle benefit was included on the payroll from July 2013 to February 2014. The chief executive officer also received unlimited fuel, contrary to the 300 litres authorised on the contract of employment. A total of 300 litres of unauthorised fuel had been drawn from March 2013 when they appointed him up to December 2013,” Chiri said.

“I also noted that the director finance, director administration and director technical were getting monthly representation allowances which were not on their contracts of employment. In addition, the corporate secretary was getting a representation allowance per month which was not on the contract of employment.”

According to Chiri, vehicle loans amounting to $140 000 availed to each of the directors were above the authorised $100 000 in contracts of employment, while the vehicle loan of $74 000 availed to the corporate secretary was above the authorised amount in the contract employment of $60 000.

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The Auditor-General found out that Zinara purchased a Jeep Grand Cherokee and office furniture for an official in the parent ministry of Transport and Infrastructure Development worth $83 042 and $10 230 respectively.

The official’s name was not disclosed in the report.

“The payment was recorded under disbursements to head office — provincial road engineers for routine and periodic road maintenance. I also noted that on December 28 2012, the administration paid for Christmas hampers worth $173 070 to the department of roads staff members serving under the ministry of transport. This was in violation of Sections 16 and 26 of the Roads Act (Chapter 13: 18),” the comptroller said.

Chitukutuku resigned in late 2014 from his position as head of Zinara under unclear circumstances, cutting short his contract that was supposed to expire early this year.

The rot at Zinara, Chiri reveals, also included the allocation of “Super User profile” to staffers, which she argues “is a powerful profile which granted unlimited access to the system, including all functional areas and security administration”.

“Zinara allowed the licensing agency’s supervisors the rights to create and delete users in the vehicle licensing system without a verification mechanism for their business needs. Furthermore, the Zinara Licensing and Transport Controller had a Super User profile which enabled him to create users, update vehicle particulars, licence fee corrections, manage exemption and generate the audit trail, among other functions,” the report added.

“My audit revealed that licensing error corrections were effected without any source documents and approval by the administration manager.”

Chiri said there was a risk that unauthorised changes “may be effected in the system if super users’ activities are not monitored”.

In response, management offered to make adjustments to the systems such that additional supervisory access rights would be given to the administration manager for checks and balances in the Vehicle Licensing Supervision.

The audit also found out that Zinara had not recorded tollgate assets or accorded those values in its financial statements.