The rot in Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Transport- Part Six

Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee has blasted the former Secretary for Transport Munesu Munodawafa for his lack of respect for the auditor-general’ office saying his attitude towards “audit issues makes a mockery of the Office of the Auditor General”.

This was after the committee established that Munodawafa had told the auditor-general’s office a different story from the one he told the committee and used money from  at least four funds under his ministry as he pleased.

“To say the least, the Permanent Secretary had shown disregard for the work of the Audit office as similar issues are raised year after year without corrective action being taken,” the committee said.

“He had also shown disregard for laid down policies and procedures as he was not apologetic for violating Constitutions of Funds under the ministry.

 “He had further shown disregard for the Treasury in failing to seek approval for operating outside the regulations when situations demanded so.

“The Permanent Secretary displayed a lax attitude even when he responded to questions put to him by the Committee.”

Munodawafa was move from the ministry to that of Mines though the committee wanted his performance to be assessed thoroughly before the end of this year.

Full report

4.6    TRAFFIC AND LEGISLATION FUND 2012- 2014

The accounts for the Fund for 2012 to 2014 received an adverse opinion which is a clear indication that this is another Fund under the Ministry that is badly administered. Below are issues raised in the audit?

4.6.1 Computerised Accounting System partially utilised

The Audit observed that the Fund purchased computerised accounting software called pastel in 2011 to ensure that reliable financial statements were produced and that the organisation’s information was protected.  However, the Fund did not have an approved Information Technology security policy.  The Chief Accountant acted as the system administrator, thus exposing the financial information to manipulation, as there was no segregation of duties.   While the computerised accounting system was introduced in 2011, it was not being fully utilised as most of the financial information was not uploaded on the system.

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