BY STEPHEN CHADENGA
THE Gweru City Council is in the process of introducing a loss control team in a bid to curb corruption which has resulted in the local authority losing a lot of revenue through manipulation of its systems by employees.
This was revealed by Gweru mayor, Josiah Makombe last week during an engagement meeting with the Women’s Coalition of Zimbabwe (WCoZ) Gweru chapter, where he said there was need for council to come up with very tight mechanisms to combat graft.
“Corruption can only be stopped when you put tight systems in the organisation,” Makombe said.
“We are working flat out so that our system is free from manipulation. We are going to introduce a loss control team,” he said.
In 2019, a forensic land audit conducted by the Local Government ministry revealed that council lost over $10 million in land deals that were done unprocedurally.
The report revealed that for the past 10 years council had been disposing of land without following due processes.
It said the losses were due to that the Midlands city was yet to fully automate its operations hence its key departments which were failing to account for vast tracts of land.
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The audit also mentioned conflict of interest among council employees when they were contracted by land developers to do sewerage, water reticulation works and approve building plans without following due process, resulting in council losing hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Council employees have also been accused of siphoning money from rental fees collected from market stall holders as well as parking fees.
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