GOKWE town councillors have threatened to report to the police and oust council chairperson Esther Senga after she refused to write a letter of resolution made during the full council meeting to suspend town secretary Melania Mandeya over the missing $491 811 from council coffers.
BY DESMOND CHINGARANDE
Five councillors have threatened to report the alleged fraud and pass a vote of no confidence against Senga, saying she might have played part in the missing funds.
Zanu PF councillors, Davis Taruvinga, Duncan Nyamukasa, Fastimo Mapfunde, Manuel Mafa and MDC-T’s Jameson Mhlanga resolved to suspend the secretary after five attempts to convene the 106th full council meeting to discuss the shortfall were blocked. UDCORP external auditors unearthed a shortfall of $491 811 and the councillors resolved that Mandeya be suspended to pave way for a forensic audit.
According to council finance committee member Taruvinga, for the past two months Senga and Mandeya had allegedly refused to hand over the 2015 audit report to the council audit committee for deliberations and recommendations.
“For the past two months the secretary and chairperson had been refusing to give us the audit report we had to engage the province to get it,” Taruvinga said.
“It is the norm when the audit report is out, (that) it is handed over to the committee to discuss the management response and then it will be presented to the next full council meeting and follow the dictates of the Urban Councils Act Chapter 29:15 section 307 (8).”
Nyamukasa said Senga’s refusal to suspend Mandeya could mean that she was involved in the disappearance of the council funds.
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Efforts by Southern Eye to speak to Mandeya were futile as she was said to be locked in a meeting.
Mandeya and Senga, according to councillors, allegedly abused the levies through successive travelling around the country and abroad. They once clashed with the councillors in 2015 after they allegedly teamed up with the finance director and travelled to Gambia without council approval.
