The Sunday News
Shepias Dube Business Reporter
STRUGGLING National Railways of Zimbabwe has defended its 22 bank accounts saying it was consistent with the size of the company, although business has been on the decline at the parastatal.
The huge number of bank accounts at the parastatal was brought to light by the Auditor General Mrs Mildred Chiri in her 2014 audit report on the general performance of State Owned Enterprises (SOE).
In an interview on Friday, NRZ public relations manager Mr Fanuel Masikati said there was nothing amiss with a company of NRZ’s magnitude having multiple bank accounts.
“The multiplicity of bank accounts reflects the size and breadth of NRZ operations. Whilst NRZ has two main bankers, the geographical spread of the company operations also necessitates dealing with other banks, due to the absence of branches for NRZ bankers in some areas,” Mr Masikati said.
He said the use of multiple currencies in the country had also contributed to the rise of the number of bank accounts.
“By way of example NRZ has four different bank accounts with one bank; one for the United States dollar, one for the rand, the pula and the last one for Paynet salaries,” said Mr Masikati.
He also indicated that the parastatal was running different banks for each of its operating regions.
The company operates in four regions namely Southern, Gweru, Harare and Mutare.
Investigations by this paper revealed that the parastatal also has bank accounts in countries where it has properties.
A senior officer who preferred to remain anonymous for professional reasons said the company opened bank accounts for agents who manage its foreign properties.
“Yes the company has bank accounts in foreign countries especially those around us. As far as l am concerned these accounts are used for rentals and salaries of people managing those properties,” he said.
Although Mr Masikati insisted that NRZ was able to manage its numerous accounts the auditor general’s report says the contrary.
“I noted that no bank reconciliation statements were prepared for the organisation’s 22 accounts held with four banks,” read part of the report.
However, Mr Masikati said failure to prepare bank reconciliation statements was not a sign of poor governance but had a lot to do with challenges in the implementation of a new accounting system.
“There were challenges in the implementation of a new accounting system known as SAP introduced by NRZ, coupled with inadequate information on bank statements to facilitate updating of direct payments from customers,” said Mr Masikati.
He said the reconciliations were however, completed and availed to the auditors before the completion of the audit.
Bank reconciliation statements are supposed to be prepared on a monthly basis to ensure, among other things, that fraud and errors are easily detected.
