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Patrick Chitumba, Midlands Bureau Chief
THE Gweru City Council wants to conduct a special forensic audit amid fears it could be losing millions of dollars in potential revenue through an alleged coordinated scam in the revenue collection department.

It emerged sometime last year that bank accounts of some of the point-of-sale machines which were being used for revenue collection could not be ascertained.

There are also concerns over leakages in the city parking department, which saw an unconfirmed number of vehicles enjoying free parking thereby prejudicing the cash-strapped local authority of thousands of dollars in potential revenue.

The local authority is choking under a $280 million debt as residents and businesses are not paying their bills.

City mayor, Councillor Josiah Makombe, said council could be losing millions of dollars to the suspected syndicate, which include cashiers and other accounts personnel.

He said there is an urgent need to conduct a forensic audit to establish what exectly is happening to revenue collection.

“I wrote to the Minister of Local Government and Public Works (July Moyo) requesting auditors to work on that (POS) scam,” he said.

“Due to the Covid-19-induced lockdown, it has taken time for them to come. I hope as soon as the lockdown is lifted the auditors will be in town.”

Cllr Makombe said council has since isolated the POS machines that it suspects are being used to secretly siphon council revenue.

“The POS machines that we suspect are not offloading in our accounts have been removed from the system,” he said.

Meanwhile, Cllr Makombe said council was still working on installing new water pumps received from South Africa recently. Once installed, he said the water situation was expected to improve.

The local authority expects to pump more than 45 megalitres a day compared to 28 megalitres being pumped per day at the moment. However, for all the suburbs in Gweru to receive water at the same time, council needs to pump more than 80 megalitres of water per day.

“We are working towards maximum pumping capacity so that our residents and stakeholders have access to water all the time. We want to do away with water shedding because our supply dams are spilling,” said Clr Makombe.