Auditor-General Exposes Serious Maladministration Issues At ZESA
The office of the Auditor-General has unearthed serious administrative issues at the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) the local power utility.
The audit which was part of forensic audit findings by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) commissioned by the Ministry of Energy and Power Development and Auditor-General’s Office (AGO) in 2018 also observed malpractices at ZESA subsidiaries including ZETDC.
The audit reveals that ZETDC paid Zebra Contracting over US$1,4 million for trenching services when no valid contract existed between the ZETDC and Zebra Contracting.
PwC reported that Zebra did not have a copper harvesting contract but was awarded a year-long trenching services contract in 2016 and it was subject to renewal in line with procurement regulations. PwC said:
However, when we inspected the list of transactions entered into by ZETDC with Zebra, we noted that there were transactions dating back to the year 2013.
The audit also observed gross violation of multimillion-dollar tenders which included the Dema diesel power project, prepaid electricity vending contract, transformer making deal with India’s PME Solutions, as well as abuse of Zesa’s vehicle policy and remuneration systems.
ZESA top officials are also reportedly leading luxurious lives when the power utility is reportedly broke.
More: The Sunday Mail
