The Sunday News
Munyaradzi Musiiwa, Midlands Correspondent
THE Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) will soon descend on Gweru City Council after councillors reported management whom they accuse of abusing council resources at the expense of service delivery.
This follows a forensic audit that was conducted at the behest of the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works which exposed gross mismanagement and corruption at the local authority. Council has been accused of using the audit to victimise some of the managers along political lines, a development which saw some of the directors resigning.
Minister of State for Midlands Provincial Affairs Senator Larry Mavima also raised concerns in the manner in which some of the matters were being handled by the local authority. Gweru Mayor Councillor Josiah Makombe said the local authority has invited Zacc to deal with issues of corruption at the city council which had adversely affected service delivery.
“The audit exposed a lot of things. It exposed corruption at the local authority. I have said it over and over again that there is serious corruption at council and we need to deal with it if we are really sincere when it comes to improving service delivery.
“This money is ratepayers’ money. It is our money as residents. Some of the issues are the packages that the directors and other managers are getting which are ridiculous. That needs to be revisited. Following the forensic audit report we have invited Zacc to come and look into the issues of corruption at council. We want them to investigate the matters raised. We will not leave any stone unturned,” he said.
Mayor Makombe said Zacc was expected to commence investigations this week. Zacc spokesperson Commissioner John Makamure said the commission will respond to the report by Gweru City Council and fully investigate the matters raised.
“If a report is submitted to Zacc we will definitely act upon it. We are definitely going to respond to the report by Gweru City Council,” he said.
