The Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare has failed to account for or distribute goods donated by the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA).
The goods are lying idle in storerooms while they continue to lose value due to damage by rats and adverse weather conditions.
The goods are meant to be disbursed to poor and vulnerable people.
This was revealed by Auditor-General Mrs Mildred Chiri in her 2018 report. She said:
There was poor accountability for goods donated to the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare by the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) held at Northcort Training Institute.
Items donated were inconsistently being recorded either as bales, sacks, bags by quantities or by weight instead of maintaining a standard unit of measurement of classification of the goods.
… From interviews held with the staff, there were instances when deliveries were made by transporters in the absence of the Ministry’s head office administration personnel for accountability purposes as they are the ones who would have collected the items from Zimra.
Among other misdemeanours, Chiri noted that there was no evidence of periodic or regular physical stock counts by supervisors both from the Ministry’s head office and Northcort Training Institute. She said:
Failure to consistently record donated items compromises the accountability of same and without physical verification, it would be difficult to ascertain whether the received donations were properly recorded and accounted for.
She recommended that the Ministry should ensure donated goods are secured at all times and that important details concerning the goods, such as quantities received, quantities issued, balance (in stock) and signature of the recipient on issuances, are captured.