Source: The Herald – Breaking news.
Justice Maphios ChedaHerald Reporter
PRESIDENT Mnangagwa has extended the tenure of the Commission of Inquiry into the governance of Harare City Council by three months to allow it to complete its work.
The Commission, which was set up on May 10 with an initial mandate to probe HCC from 2017 within a time frame of six months, now has up to early February next year to complete its work and report back to the President by early May.
Chaired by retired High Court judge, Justice Maphios Cheda, the Commission was constituted in a proclamation under the Commission of Inquiry Act with its tenure set to expire this month, but with an option of a three-month extension if that was found necessary.
In Proclamation 5 of 2024 gazetted in Statutory Instrument 180 of 2024 yesterday, President Mnangagwa exercised that option of an extension, taking the investigation up to nine months.
The original instruction remains that the commission must report to the President within three months of completing its investigation, giving time to analyse the information, draw conclusions and draft recommendations.
Apart from Rtd Justice Cheda, the other members of the Commission are local government experts Steven Chakaipa, Norbert Phiri, Lucia Gladys Matibenga and Khonzani Ncube.
In July, President Mnangagwa replaced Mr Phiri with Mr Tafadzwa Charles Hungwe, a Harare lawyer.
The Permanent Secretary for Local Government and Public Works is the secretary to the commission, meaning it can easily access the necessary support from the Ministry.
Among its terms of reference the commission is to investigate financial management systems and audit compliance with the Public Finance Management Act and other laws.
In particular, the President wanted it to investigate financial management of revenue generated through special vehicle companies and other out sourced arrangements.
These would include entities like Rufaro Marketing, a private company owned by the council that controls a large property portfolio, and City Parking, another private council-owned company that controls the city centre public street parking, parkades and council car parks.
Both should be producing substantial revenue for the council, but as private companies, they do not have to issue public accounts.
In addition, the council itself has not been giving details of their accounts and the public does not know how much revenue they make, what their costs, such as their payrolls, are and what the eventual profits might be.
Harare has come under severe criticism from the Auditor-General among others for not having an Enterprise Resource Planning system to manage its accounts since 2019, and the commission needs to investigate why not and to quantify any losses accruing as a result.
The Auditor-General has reported that the lack of an appropriate system has made it impossible to work out what has happened to some of the council revenue, and to state whether or not funds are being misappropriated.
The fourth finance term of reference was to investigate and ascertain the procedures of management, sale or lease or transfer of the local authority’s properties to private entities. This covers a wide swathe of activity from selling stands to renting out shops.
Besides these pure financial aspects, the commission was tasked to probe and investigate the convening of council meetings as well as adherence to the standing orders and rules in council meetings.
It was also mandated to investigate compliance with procurement laws, inclusive of disposal of assets and compliance with the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Act.
The President also gave the commission open-ended authority “to investigate any other matter which the Commission of Inquiry may deem appropriate and relevant to the inquiry”.
The commission was given full power to visit whatever premises it wished, to summon witnesses, record proceedings, minute testimonies, and documents, consider and manage all information gathered.
This means that no one can refuse to give evidence to the commission or refuse to answer questions or show what documents the commission wants to see.
Since being sworn in, the commission has been busy gathering evidence and while it can quiz people in private, it has questioned councillors and officials in public hearings, generating a lot of interest and information that many residents find startling.
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