Problems continue to mount at Bulawayo Agenda, one of the region’s largest civic society organisation, following reports the two senior officials currently under probe for alleged financial mismanagement, doled out large sums of money on unbudgeted-for staff lunches and trips.
According to an internal document leaked to NewsDay, the pair — director Annastacia Moyo and finance director Titshabona Ncube — are accused of running the accounts department “like a private enterprise”.
Board chairman Kucaca Phulu last week confirmed internal investigations were ongoing, but it could not be established yesterday when the probe would be concluded as his mobile phone went unanswered. The donor-funded NGO, which catapulted State Enterprises and Parastatals minister Gorden Moyo into the political limelight, closed its doors last week to allow for investigations and is expected to reopen for business tomorrow.
It is reported donors have withheld funding for the organisation until the matter has been resolved. In a document, dated July 7 and titled “Monitoring and Evaluation Report to the Review Committee”, both Moyo and Ncube are blamed for the organisation’s financial woes.
The document alleged funds were being transferred from one account to another in a haphazard manner and in breach of the organisation’s regulations. Part of the report read: “The finance office have mixed up funds at such an alarming rate that I am not surprised that no clear explanation is forthcoming as to how we have been using our monies.
“What I have observed is that the finance manager takes money from one project and uses it for a lot of things outside the project and when the other project pays in money, it is taken to cover the gap created and of course part of it goes again to non-project expenses.
“The finance manager has allocated so much to finance non-project activities like directors’ trips to Harare and Botswana (personal shopping for her private business), unbudgeted staff lunches and dinners at these expensive places.
“My conclusion is that the finance office has become inaccessible and is run like a private enterprise where it is only the director and finance manager who know what is happening in it. I think the two have not acquired much experience in running finance, hence the haphazard way of moving funds all over and not prioritising the key needs of the organisation
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“His (finance director) style is best suited in a sole-proprietor kind of business where decisions made by the owner and its consequences are entirely his responsibility.”
An assistant finance officer, who reportedly wrote the document, said funds were doled out to staff members for any organisational expense without recipients signing for the cash.
“I always wondered how the finance manager would remember to record all those many transactions and be able to account for every cent spent accurately,” reads the report.
As of July 7, Bulawayo Agenda had liabilities totalling $73 650.
“The director is said to be always travelling on personal business with the organisation footing the bill in the process ‘eating’ into the allocation that is supposed to go into salaries,” read the report.
