Zimbabwe: Corruption At Zacc - a Case of Who

Will Guard the Guardians

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13 April 2022

New Zimbabwe (London)

By Thandiwe Garusa

QUIS custodiet ipsos custodesâ (Who will guard the guards) was the satirical query
posed by poet-philosopher Juvenal in Ancient Rome.

It has for centuries been generally used to describe a situation in which a person or
body having power to supervise or scrutinise the actions of others, is not itself or
themselves subject to supervision or scrutiny and find themselves committing the
same ills they exist to obliterate.

Juvenal could never have anticipated that a day would come in 21st century
Zimbabwe when a full-fledged and constitutionally assembly entity whose purpose is
to fight corruption could find itself in the middle of a corruption scandal.

That is the irony of epic proportions playing out at the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption
Commission (ZACC), which was last week exposed by Auditor General Mildred
Chiri for failing to account for at least US$5,5 million it received over the past four
years.

Iron lady, auditor general Mildred Chiri knows no sacred cows in her annual audit
reports

And, to make matters worse, the commission is even sitting over the truth like a
brooding hen.
It admitted Tuesday its financial books were in shambles; so much for an organisation
which must be at the forefront of championing transparency.

In fact, ZACC said in a statement, its books have been in muddles for 10 years and
rushed to blame legacy issues for it.

The valiant auditor general, whom not long-ago government tried to dismiss for her
stinging expositions, that millions of United States dollars spent by the organisation
since 2012 cannot be accounted for.

She said in her report covering the year 2020 this raises fears of misappropriation.

ZACC, Chiri said, failed to account for US$1,1 million cash payments made during
the year ending 2019 and US$2 million spent for the year ending 2017.

She said the commission improperly disposed houses worth US$2,4 million, leaving a
mouth-watering US$1,1 million gap which it would surely have sent its sniffer dogs
has it been done elsewhere.

Millions of United States dollars given to Zacc to fight corruption cannot be

accounted for, according to auditor general Mildred Chiri

In addition to that, the Chiri audit revealed there were numerous explained cash
payments for things like fuel and, quite uproariously, an incomplete petty cash book
with missing records.

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ZACC admitted the anomalies in a statement Tuesday but chose to blame those who
have occupied the positions current officials held before and sought to trash the
ineptitude in the history dustbins.

"ZACC takes note of the comment raised in the auditor general Ms Mildred Chiri's
latest report stating that the commission failed to furnish her with supporting
documentation for payment of goods and services and other substantial
disbursements," the commission said.

"The commission would like to state that it is currently studying the document and
will issue a comprehensive statement in due course. However, ZACC acknowledges
that its books for the period 2012-2019 were not in order owing to legacy issues
which are now an issue of the past," it said.

"Since its appointment in 2019, the current commission led by Justice Loyce
Matanda-Moyo has worked tirelessly to enhance professionalism and transparency in
its conduct and execution of its mandate," the statement reads.

It may be, after all, that the millions of taxpayer's money spent on trying to combat
corruption, defined tautologically as cancer eating society's moral fabric, is actually
being preyed on by the very custodians, in which case one wonders who will
investigate them.

Or it may as well be a case of the fox being in charge of the hen house.