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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 some point-of-sale machines were being used for revenue collection whose bank accounts 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 – 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 settling water and services debts.

City mayor, Councilor Josiah Makombe, said council could be losing millions of dollars to the suspected syndicate, which include cashier’s and accounts personnel. He unless a proper forensic audit was conducted, the local authority could be brought down to its knees.

“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 them time to come. I hope as soon as the lockdown is lifted the auditors will be in town.”

In the meantime, Clr Makombe said council has isolated the concerned POS machines that are being used to secretly siphon council revenue.

“The POS machines we suspect not to be offloading in our accounts have been removed from the system for now until the forensic audit is done,” he said.

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

The local authority projects to pump over 45 megalitres a day compared to 28 megaliters 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 over 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 way with water shedding because the water supply dams are spilling,” he said.