Government could be losing assets including vehicles to shambolic asset registers, the Auditor General, Mildred Chiri has noted.
According to the 2016 audit report, Ministry of Industry and Commerce procured four Nissan NP300 vehicles from Nissan Clover Leaf Motors for $119 636 on September 8, 2016 but failed to record them in the asset register.
This is against the requirements of the treasury which states that assets received by way of purchase must be recorded in the assets records.
“The Ministry did not submit Quarterly reports for results based management programme as required by the Audit circular number one of 2016.
“As a result l could not evaluate the extent to which the Ministry achieved the goals laid out in the Ministerial Integrated Performance Agreement,” she said.
Meanwhile Chiri said the ministry of Industry procured 10 195 litres of petrol costing US$13 457 and 22 300 litres of diesel costing US$26 537 from Petrol trade (Pvt) Ltd on December 24, 2016 without following tender procedures as stipulated by law.
She said failure to abide with procurement thresholds may result in uneconomic buying or tenders being awarded to suppliers without the capacity to deliver the required quantities.
Chiri whose term has since expired, also noted that the Ministry of Industry and Commerce did not disclose public financial assets relating to a loan amounting $3 310 000 given to CAPS Holdings through the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe thereby understating the balance on the Statement of Public Financial Assets return.
