By 
THE Office of Auditor-General OAG has not been truthful after it promised the 2019 report will be released early this year after Government auditors failed to complete examining all public accounts last year as a result of exposure of the rit in government now blamed on Covid-19-induced restrictions.
In terms of Section 309 (2) of the Constitution, read with Section 10 of the Audit Office Act, the Auditor-General is required to prepare and submit a report of all Government books to the Minister of Finance, who then tables it in Parliament not later than June 30 of each year.
However, government which has no say in this matter has been downplaying the matter saying the audit was disrupted by the lockdown, which began on March 30, 2020.
AUDITOR-GENERAL Mildred Chiri is already making headlines on other bissues onstead of the contentious one of releasing the 2019 report and next week is billed to headline a day-long indaba to advance adoption of integrated corporate sustainability reporting that foster public disclosure organised by Institute of Chartered Accountants of Zimbabwe (ICAZ) in partnership with The Institute for Sustainability Africa (INŚAF).
The virtual event seeks to equip company executives with appropriate understanding of corporate sustainability reporting skills to enable better implementation.
Corporate sustainability reporting is a practice embedding social and governance (ESG) issues into business practices, decisionmaking, leadership responsibility, management systems, corporate reporting and business strategy of organisations for value creation and contribution to sustainable development.
The Auditor-General, Mrs Mildred Chiri, is on record of saying the report will be released during the first quarter of 2021.
“I cannot give you the exact date yet because audits are still in progress.
“We are aiming to have it out during the first quarter of 2021,” she once said.
Chairperson of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee Mr Tendai Biti os also on record os saying the report should be released without delay.
“The official reason why the 2019 Auditor-General’s report has not been released is the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Mr Biti.
“We hope that the report will be released early in 2021.
“Releasing the report late creates a lot of problems for us as a committee because we are already behind time as a result of the Covid-19 restrictions.
“This delay will mean that the 2020 report may be delayed as well.” Honourable Biti was quoted of having said so in the beginning of the year.
The audit on monitoring of imported goods revealed that “there were no regulations governing quality assessment (of imported goods) as such most of the goods (87 percent) were not being checked for quality, increasing the risk of inferior products flooding the market.”
The 2018 Auditor-General’s Annual report exposed shambolic accounting records in some ministries and the diversion of public funds towards unplanned activities, while in some instances goods procured by some public entities were not delivered.
The Second Republic is accused of lacking commitment to use findings from the audits to prosecute those implicated in corrupt practices as it only uses selective application of the law punishing opposition members in power compared to letting loose its own rogue elements..
It is in this light the Auditor General is urged to prioritize the release of the 2019 report before making headlines at other fora.
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