KWEKWE City Council is at odds with the Urban Development Corporation (Udcorp), accusing the government body of incompetence and milking the local authority, a year after it produced a damning audit report alleging nearly $1 million could have been stolen from council.
Source: Udcorp audits milking us: Kwekwe – NewsDay Zimbabwe September 28, 2016
BY BLESSED MHLANGA
Minutes of a full council meeting show that councillors accused Udcorp of preparing shoddy reports, which alleged abuse of funds when “no money was being stolen”.
“One member expressed concern in the matter in which external auditors were raising unfounded statements because the impression they have now created is that local authorities were not being properly run,” the minutes read.
Chamber secretary Lucia Mkandla supported the councillors, saying Udcorp had been causing turmoil within central government and local authorities owing to its alleged incompetence.
“She said it should be noted that the (Local Government) ministry has also realised that Udcorp was causing unnecessary commotion, not only in local authorities, but even within government departments, where they are engaged to audit,” the minutes further read.
The same meeting also heard from treasurer Rejoice Maweni that Udcorp was milking them dry by charging exorbitant fees.
She said other auditors who did their 2014 financials had charged them $15 000, but Udcorp was demanding $86 000 for the 2015 reports.
Council said it had written letters to Udcorp to explain its charges, but they had not received any explanation.
“We wrote a number of letters seeking an explanation regarding how Udcorp arrived at their figures, as they raised two invoices for the same audit. They did not respond to justify their charges, which made us to conclude that they were on a fundraising mission,” the minutes read.
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