Higher and Tertiary Education minister Amon Murwira has ordered a forensic audit into Zimbabwe Manpower Development Fund (Zimdef) books in a bid to uncover suspected corrupt activities during his predecessor Jonathan Moyo’s reign.
BY XOLISANI NCUBE
Murwira yesterday said he had suspended all financial transactions outside salaries on the Zimdef account until finalisation of the probe.
“We are not pussyfooting on the issue of the audit and fighting corruption,” he said.
“I have not authorised any payment of transactions until the forensic audit is over.
“The idea is that we want to know all the systems and ensure going forward, we have a clean bill on the accounts and know what is needed to improve or deal with corruption issues or anomalies that would have been picked up by the audit.”
The minister said, initially, the audit was due to end tomorrow, but would now run until February 28 so that auditors have enough time to “probe carefully without rushing”.
“This is not a witch hunt exercise, but we want to see where we are and how to move forward,” he said.
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In the run-up to the audit, Murwira sent at least six top Zimdef managers on forced leave to allow the probe to go on without hitches.
Murwira’s declaration comes amid reports that Zimdef paid $5 000 towards Zanu PF’s extraordinary congress held in Harare last month.
“Since I took over as Higher Education minister on December 4, 2017, I have never authorised any payment to that effect,” he said.
“I have read the same on social media, but those are lies.”
