Theresa Takafuma
The Auditor General Mildred Chiri’s 2019 report on local authorities exposed the rot in most councils, with misappropriation of public funds taking centre stage.
The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Public Accounts (PAC) has been summoning top management in councils with outstanding issues in the report to give oral evidence, which has seen them digging up fraudulent activities that have already seen some council officials being nabbed by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) and appearing in court.
Millions of dollars have been lost by councils through many leakages that include poor control systems, fraud, theft, funds misappropriation among other things which disadvantage residents who are at the receiving end of increased rates yet poor service delivery.
Most, if not all the local authorities cited have serious service delivery issues, some of which have become perennial and require urgent attention but it seems the running of operations at these institutions is largely to blame for the sorry state they are in.
Anomalies raised by the AG
In the AG’s report highlights, she mentioned that of the 59 issues she reported, 34 related to the area of governance while 25 related to service delivery, employment costs, procurement and revenue collection, all this relating mostly to misappropriation of ratepayers funds and resources which are supposed to be channeled towards service delivery.
Among other issues, Masvingo City Council, in the most recent Oral Evidence session by the PAC, was grilled over its lack of a proper lease register which captures all council rented properties.
In documents released to PAC, telecoms giant Econet Wireless was flagged as one of the leasees who allegedly had overdue lease issues, with some of the leases for its 16 base stations having expired, dating back to 2013, a fact that was disputed by Econet representative Engineer Kezito Makuni during the PAC Oral Evidence session who said their leases were up to date.
“We were not given the opportunity to respond because under normal circumstances we would have responded (when the story came out in the media). We will provide the committee (PAC) with all the documents required to clarify this issue,” Eng Makuni said.
PAC chairperson and legislator Dexter Nduna accused Masvingo Town Clerk Eng Mukaratirwa of trying to be the sacrificial lamb for Econet on the lease issue, as council had reportedly released documents that were not in sync with what they had initially said.
“There is a lot of inconsistencies on what the Econet manager Mr Makuni has said and what the city council has said. It then looks like Mr Mukaratirwa in the absence of information coming from him to Parliament has been made a sacrificial lamb so that he takes the punches for the big guys, who are Econet.
“We are waiting for the information, in particular the bank details (statements) the deposits according to the rentals for the bank statements and also we are waiting to see the physical documents in terms of lease agreements that are supposed to come from Masvingo Eng Mukaratirwa.
“In the absence of that we are inclined to think that there are overdue payments and there are also lease agreements that have expired,” Nduna said in an interview.
Eng Mukaratirwa on his part insisted that documents he sent to Parliament had been prepared by council acting finance director with help from Econet employees, later confirming that what Eng Makuni had told the PAC was correct.
Chiri’s report also noted a variance of $520 653 between the recomputed lease rental balance of $167 190 and the ledger balance $687 843 which she said council management could not resolve.
There are also reports that a number of council properties being rented out are not being paid for, which is shortchanging ratepayers who then have to pay increased rates while service delivery continues to deteriorate.
A council official has also been suspended and is in court for failing to bank parking fees paid in forex, which raises red flags on the council systems that prevent such from happening.
Among other systematic anomalies in the AG’s report, council did not have until 2020, a comprehensive fuel record that indicated usage and purpose, a comprehensive lease register, had a porous ledger system that is open to manipulation, all this pointing to all the money slipping through council’s systems.
Chiredzi Town Council management is under fire for using council funds to repair a vehicle that was involved in an accident with then council chairperson Francis Moyo, for an amount to the tune of US$2 595 and the vehicle was supposed to have been parked at council premises when it had the said accident.
“A review of records revealed that the Chairman had been involved in an accident with a council vehicle. It was noted that the chairman was not on council business when the accident occurred. The vehicle was supposed to be parked at the council premises as directed by the ministry in line with safeguarding assets. The council incurred a total of $2 595 in repairing the vehicle,” read part of the report.
Contacted for comment, Moyo said the issue was referred to police after a council resolution to that effect during the late Town Secretary Charles Muchatukwa’s tenure, saying he was not the one who was driving the vehicle when the accident happened.
“The accident happened on the 2016 21st February birthday celebrations of former President Robert Mugabe. I was the one who was assigned that vehicle but a council driver had it when the accident happened.
“Council got me arrested and the issue went to court and I was released. It was all about political factions as (former Zanu PF commissar Saviour) Kasukuwere sent his boys, some auditors to Chiredzi to investigate the issue saying I had had an accident in Kwekwe while on ‘Lacoste’ business.
“What happened was that I hired a bus for people from Ward 4 to go to the birthday celebrations and when they complained of hunger due to food scarcity at the celebrations, that is when I summoned the council driver who had driven councilors to Masvingo for the celebrations to come and take my vehicle so that he could take food to them and he then hit a cow on his way back,” Moyo said.
Chiredzi Acting Town Secretary Engineer Wesley Kauma was hostile when contacted for comment on the issue, saying parliament had not had an interview with them despite them having been summoned but failed to attend oral evidence sessions, after which they were threatened with contempt of Parliament.
“Who is giving you parliamentary questions when we have not attended the interviews? You should go back to whoever is feeding you information on that issue and they should give you what you wanted to get from me,”Eng Kauma said.
Eng Kauma later appeared before the PAC where he said he had the assumption that the official who authorized the transaction was former Town Secretary Charles Muchatukwa, who passed on a few months ago.
The matter was then reffered to ZACC for it to do its investigations and possibly recover all the funds that may have misappropriated on the former chairperson’s vehicle repair.
Mutare City Council, which was flagged in the AG’s report for initiating write-offs worth ZW$1 175 793 with no proper documentation in 2015 was also asked to present themselves to ZACC in another oral evidence session after failing to give the PAC satisfactory responses on issues raised.
This comes at a time when the council is continuously plagued by service delivery issues, chief among them the failure to complete the Dangamvura water project which has taken years to complete.
Earlier this year, Mutare Deputy Mayor Farai Bhiza told residents at a TellZim News engagement meeting that Mutare’s roads had become so bad that some motorists were now leaving their vehicles in the Central Business District while they hike home for fear of them being damaged by the roads.
Shurugwi Town Council had an issue in the AG’s report where they purchased two Ford Ranger vehicles worth US$79 000 for the Town Secretary and the Finance Director but had no documentary evidence to support the expenditure.
Shurugwi Town Council chairperson Cllr Walter Gwinji said he was not yet in council when the issue was raised but he had heard of the issue.
“I heard about the issue being discussed at council but I do not have full details, but I can confirm that the vehicles were for the Town Secretary and the Finance Director,” Gwinji said.
In Gweru, a number of issues were raised, among them irregular stands sale due to weak internal control systems, which saw the local authority suspending its Director of Housing and Community Services Shingirirayi Tigere earlier this year.
“(Tigere) is still on suspension and the hearing is still ongoing. I do not know when the process will end since I am not part of it,” Gweru mayor Josiah Makombe said.
Stands worth nearly $2 million were cited by the AG to have been sold by the council, against a Ministerial circular that prohibits the sale of commercial and industrial stands at concessionary rates to councilors some of whom reportedly bought discounted stands for their juvenile children.
Again, the AG could not trace the amount to the local authority’s financial statements, with councilors reportedly getting stands at a 40 percent discount and some not paying anything for the stands.
Chirumanzu Rural District Council was cited as having important posts in the council being vacant for eight years, something which definitely compromises service delivery.
“The post of Executive Officer Agriculture, Executive Officer Social Services, Admin Clerk, Driver and Lease clerk had been vacant for 8 years,” read the report.
What dominates the AG’s report are cases of poor internal controls where some local authorities lost revenue to fraud and theft, for example in Chinhoyi where a nurse at a council clinic remained on the payroll for 12 months after leaving employment.
Masvingo, Mutare, Bindura, Chinhoyi, Marondera and Gweru all had issues with poor internal controls especially on revenue collection and debt recovery but had serious service delivery issues that require those funds.
Income Generating Opportunities
Local authorities have a lot of opportunities to generate income that will ease the burden on ratepayers if they manage to innovate and make use of them.
Masvingo City Council in June this year made a resolution to move buses from the CBD to Mucheke Rank, saying they had intentions to upgrade the bus terminus on a build-operate-transfer (BOT) concept they had reportedly copied from Gweru City Council, but nothing has materialized so far.
Masvingo Mayor Collen Maboke said council had issues with public transporter Zupco, which are yet to be resolved, making it difficult for them to implement the resolution.
“We made a resolution about moving buses to Mucheke rank but we had issues with Zupco. We are targeting to renovate Mucheke rank and it is there in our 2022 budget proposal. So far, no investor has come forward and expressed interest in the BOT setup,” Maboke said.
Mucheke Bus Terminus is cited in the city council budget consultation report under investment promotion, where among other projects, council is looking for business partnership opportunities.
The bus terminus, which has potential to generate revenue for the cash strapped city council, has been lying idle for years without any meaningful efforts to revamp it.
The local authority is also renting out its Townlands Farms to farmers for amounts ranging from US$1000 to US$300 per month, with resident organizations saying these have potential to generate more income if properly utilized
Masvingo Service Delivery Residents and Rate Payers Association (MASDRA) secretary general Moses Mavhusa said his organization was not aware of the leases between council and said farmers, saying there is high probability of fraud having taken place prior to the lease agreement signing.
“What is quite interesting is that we were not aware of these leases, and we have been pushing for capital projects at the farms so that income generated there will ease the burden on ratepayers.
“We want meaningful projects at these farms, not these lease agreements that are not justifed,” Mavhusa said.
In Chiredzi, Chigarapasi Bar has been a white elephant for a long time and residents argue that there are a number of investment opportunities Chiredzi Town Council is missing.
Chiredzi Residents and Ratepayers Association secretary general Munyaradzi Chindowe said Chigarapasi was built to finance council activities but lack of innovation on the part of council was costing them.
“Chigarapasi has the potential to finance a number of council activities if managed properly because Chiredzi does not have any other asset they can use for capital projects than this beerhall. It is the biggest not only in Zimbabwe but in the SADC region.
“We could partition it and make it a community centre for the youths who are now doing drugs because of idleness. We can also turn it into a modern shopping mall because of its size. Again, we can lease it to an investor with the capacity to give it modern standards.
“We are also appealing to government to give Chiredzi Town Council sugarcane plots so that they have capital projects that can then fund land development so that when they sell land, it would have more value,” Chindowe said.
Masvingo council beerhalls; Rujeko popularly known as ‘Marry Me’, Sarudzai, Farai, Manhede, are in a sorry state and need to be revamped to meet modern standards so that they attract investors and dignified patrons.
Masvingo United Residents and Ratepayers Alliance (MURRA) director Anoziva Muguti said council had failed to manage these properties and residents then have to pay more for services.
“Council confirmed that it had failed to manage the beer halls and they were not getting any meaningful revenue from those who are renting them, which equals to revenue being lost.
“We approached council after it had flighted an advert that they were letting a farm for US$500 per year and they agreed that the amount was not reasonable. All that points to revenue being lost, adding to residents and ratepayers burden,” Muguti said.
Poor revenue collection and debt recovery methods have also seen council losing millions, if not billions of dollars to ratepayers, with government departments and tertiary education institutions topping the list of institutional debtors.
Masvingo City Council Acting finance director Danister Jori said commercial, industrial and institutional total debt had ballooned to ZW$250 658 775.80 while domestic debt was currently at ZW$211 323 890. 80.
“The city will employ all means available to recover these debts taking into cognizance the fact that there is no single strategy that suits all debtors,” Jori said.
Service delivery issues
Service delivery in all councils is in a dire state, with most of them having projects that annually appear in budgets but with little to no progress especially on water and waste management, both solid and liquid.
In Harare, most residential areas go without running water for months on end, at a time when officials are appearing in court for embezzling council funds while lying to residents about service delivery.
Some of these institutions award tenders to contractors who do not deliver on their contracts and on top of losing ratepayers’ funds, service delivery is largely compromised.
Bindura Municipality awarded Pelgin Consulting Services a tender to supply a front-end-loader in December 2018, which they paid US$90 850 for, but it took years to be delivered, and it is still not clear if it eventually came.
That equipment would have made a big difference in service delivery for the local authority, but if such kind of equipment takes two years to be delivered then it leaves a lot to be desired if ever roads are going to be repaired, among other things.
Chiredzi Rural District Council also awarded Solutions Motors, which was blacklisted by the Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (PRAZ) recently, a tender to supply a Toyota Fortuner vehicle in October 2019, and the local authority is now demanding a refund after the supplier failed to deliver.
Solutions Motors has outstanding issues with Mwenezi and Karoi RDCs among other local authorities, but it kept getting recommended to these local authorities despite its poor record in supplying, all pointing to dodgy dealings in tender awarding.
The Dangamvura Water Project in Mutare has become a mantra at almost every council engagement meeting, but it still remains a pipe dream as work keeps stalling and resuming irregularly.
Perennial water woes bedevil Masvingo urban, and it has been reported that there is an estimated 40 percent loss in the water reticulation system, with council confirming that a large number of water meters are not working (26 percent of all Rujeko water meters are not working).
Eng Mukaratirwa said a council task team was carrying out surveys on water meters and the results will be published after they complete each zone.
“Confirmed 26 percent for Rujeko zone and at the moment we are in the process of purchasing water meters to replace the non-functional ones. As for other zones our Non-Revenue Water task Team is still carrying out surveys and as they complete each zone, the results will be made public,” Mukaratirwa said.
Chegutu has the same problem, where it was reported that 80 percent of the municipality’s households did not have functional water meters, while 50 percent of water distributed from the treatment plant is lost through leakages according to the AG’s report.
Masvingo residents during recent council budget consultations complained over the continuous recurrence of the Mucheke Trunk Sewer project on the budget when the project which started some years ago is far from being completed.
In the 2022 proposed Masvingo council budget, the trunk sewer project is allocated ZW$100 million from devolution funds allocated to the local authority.
About US$4 million previously went down the drain on the trunk sewer project, without much having been done except for trenches that were dug and ended up being a health hazard to residents.
The Chimusana Bridge, which has become a death trap for motorists especially during the rainy season ended up being adopted by government as part of the Beitbridge-Harare road project after council failed to raise the US$5 million needed to revamp it.
“Confirmed, Chimusana Bridge and Access Road are now part of the Beitbridge-Harare Road Project,” Eng Mukaratirwa said.
Masvingo Residents Forum (MRF) chairperson Brighton Ramusi said a lot of funds had been used on the trunk sewer project, with little progress, yet residents were once made to pay a sewer levy.
“We acknowledge that the trunk sewer project requires all attention, resources and is up there on the priority list. Resources have been and continue being poured in this project and there was nothing to show for it.
“We are saying account first. Let us know how much has been used so far,” Ramusi said.
Apart from Masvingo, waste management is at its worst in most if not all local authorities, which are failing to acquire equipment to either complete work on waste infrastructure or buying new refuse compactors.
The ZACC mandate: Toothless bulldog?
The Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission has been descending on local authorities lately, but citizens are yet to see if any prosecution will take place as the anti-graft body can only arrest and hand over to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).
Recently, the commission was at Zaka Rural District Council where they were probing issues of corruption after a whistleblower had reported.
ZACC spokesperson Commissioner John Makamure said they had arrested several council officials across the country and will keep doing so, with many investigations still ongoing.
“We have investigated several local authorities and I can confirm that if a case has been reported to ZACC definitely we will investigate and institute investigations like we have done with many other local authorities.
“If there are any findings of criminal nature, we will then arrest perpetrators,” Makamure said.
In one of the PAC oral evidence session however, Gweru Acting Town Clerk Vakai Douglas Chikwekwe said that there were issues that they reported to the anti-graft body but were not satisfied by how they were being handled, raising eyebrows on probable continuation of corruption at the local authority despite the expulsion of alleged perpetrators.
In an interview, Chikwekwe said the person involved, former council Estates and Evaluation Manager Gibson Chingwadza was suspended pending investigations and later expelled by council for a stands scam but Chingwadza was yet to be arrested.
“A forensic land audit was done here by the parent ministry and it unearthed massive corruption by Chingwadza. We investigated and he was found guilty. He was suspended and later expelled sometime last year and we reported to ZACC. There is overwhelming evidence where he fraudulently diverted 20 stands which are non-residential.
“I believe the guy is very cunning and he might have interfered with the investigation that is probably why it’s taking too long for him to be arrested. This guy bought a house in one of the most expensive areas in Gweru, razed it to the ground whilst staying in a hotel and later built it from scratch. His lifestyle audit shows that he has no capacity to afford that and we want all council funds that were misused by him to be recovered,” Chikwekwe said.
Chikwekwe added that there is another case dragging its feet, involving a former Acting Director of Housing Unity Jaji that involves about 50 residential stands.
To top that, there has been an outcry on the speed at which perpetrators of corruption are prosecuted, which has seen some instituting counter applications at court to fight off allegations of corruption, after ZACC would have done its job of investigating and arresting.
Calls have been made to review court procedures that sometimes delay the incarceration of corrupt officials and in turn compromise ZACC’s capacity.
