Bulawayo City Council does not have a waiting list for prospective house and stand seekers, Auditor-General, Mildred Chiri has said.
BY XOLISANI NCUBE
In her latest audited report released this week, Chiri said Bulawayo together with Beitbridge Town Council, Hurungwe, Mberengwa and Muzarabani did not have registers for those wanting stands and houses.
“Bulawayo City Council did not have a waiting list for prospective houses and stand seekers,” the Office of the Auditor-General (OAG) said in her report.
“Chegutu Rural District Council did not have a record of houses it inherited from the former Norton Selous Council since the 1970s.”
The report stated that Bulawayo’s capital assets were susceptible to abuse and misappropriation due to a shambolic asset register.
“In addition, the council did not retain a copy of the receipt or the receipt number as proof of payment of the $16 deposit for one to be on the waiting list,” the report stated.
Chiri said the entire process was manipulable as there were instances where stamps on the application forms that represent proof of payment were manually adjusted.
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“The risks here are that of financial loss to fraud on sale of stands,” the OAG noted.
On Beitbridge Town Council, the audited report for 2015 states that the municipality had no records of stands allocation and sales, exposing it to fraudulent activities such as double allocation of stands and illegal sales.
The OAG also raised alarm on Gokwe Town Council’s 2014 audited reports amid suggestion that the municipality did not have formally adopted policies in key areas such as housing, information technology, procedure manual and recruitment.
Also not spared by the OAG was Plumtree Town Council, whose 2015 accounts were scrutinised and found to be wanting on payment-supporting documents and wage bill management.
“The council executives were being paid education allowances outside the payroll and as a result the allowances were not being taxed. This allowance was not on the list of other allowances approved by the responsible minister and the condition of service was not amended to take into account subsequent directives, circulars and rationalisation instruments which spell out allowances paid,” Chiri said in her report.
Another local authority that was rebuked by the OAG was Binga Rural District Council whose books for 2015 were under examination by the auditors with indications that it owed the taxman $79 000 in pay-as-you-earn obligations among other statutory institutions.
