Bulawayo South MP Edward Cross (MDC-T) yesterday called for urgent government intervention to save the State-run CMED (Private) Limited from collapse after the Comptroller and Auditor-General revealed stock worth $15 million had gone missing at the parastatal.
Cross made the remarks while debating a CMED audit report presented by the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Public Accounts chaired by Makoni West MP Webber Chinyadza.
The audit report was for the period between 2004 and 2009.
“It is disturbing that in a period of three years CMED profits which used to be $6 million (in 2009) declined to $288 000 (in 2011),” Cross said.
“Stock worth $15 million also went missing and one wonders where accountability by the Executive is on issues like this.”
He lashed out at Transport minister Nicholas Goche for not attending Parliament when such a report was being presented and urged government to fire CMED top managers for incompetence.
Chinyadza said the audit was conducted after different government departments complained the institution was failing to meet their transport requirements.
“An analysis of the organisation’s financial statements for years 2004 to 2008 revealed that in any of those years more than 50% of its current assets were tied up in debtors and as at August 2011 records show the organisation’s debtors stood at $8 million,” said Chinyadza.
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The committee report also showed CMED did not have a “clear distribution policy” of vehicles to ministries.
“Of the 679 vehicles purchased between 2004 and 2009, some ministries got more vehicles than others, for instance Local Government received 56, Parliament 32 and 87 back up pool VIP vehicles while some ministries got just one vehicle,” reads the report.
