HARARE – Pressure is mounting on the Ministry of Energy and Power Development to probe alleged irregularities in the ZESA Holdings tender for prepaid electricity tokens amid claims the system used by its unit, Powertel, is failing to cope with demand.
Powertel (Pic by TechnoMag)
Powertel was appointed by the ministry as the sole aggregator for the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company’s prepaid electricity tokens, but the arrangement is failing to adequately address the needs of consumers.
Long queues in ZETDC banking halls and other appointed private vendors are often the order of the day while more inconveniences for users of electricity stem from the fact that purchase of the tokens is restricted to working or business hours. The system is often times off-line at selected retail outlets while consumers are set to suffer more inconvenience when maintenance work is done.
Yesterday ZESA put out a notice that there would be an interruption of the prepayment vending system from today at 1000hrs to 1000hrs tomorrow in order to carry out maintenance work.
As such, fears abound that delays in the implementation of an efficient prepaid electricity vending model could create risks that might jeopardise revenue collection for ZETDC which desperately needs the funds to provide a key commodity.
IT experts have questioned the logic of having a single aggregator for prepaid electricity at a time the Powertel system is failing to cope with customer demands while creating a crisis in terms of access to power each time the system goes down.
“We believe that some of the impending risks faced by ZETDC include, but are not limited to bypassing electricity meters leading to revenue leakage . . . and customers continually seeking loopholes to exploit.
“In that regard, it is rather shortsighted of ZETDC to continue installing prepaid meters without implementing corresponding related projects to ensure demand for prepaid electricity tokens is addressed,” said a source that requested anonymity.
A snap survey revealed that the OK Supermarkets system was down for the better part of the weekend, while Athienitis Spar (Fife Avenue) was offline.
Powertel does not have a wide distribution network and its sales are restricted to business hours. ZESA, on the other hand, recently stopped selling electricity tokens during the weekend. This together with constant technical faults deprives customers of electricity.
Other sources said because experts spent time and resources on solutions and preparations for implementing alternative vending models, frustrating them through the Powertel monopoly could worsen the wave of brain drain in the country.
Bidders participated in earlier tenders to become aggregators but the tender was cancelled under unclear circumstances until Powertel was appointed by the ministry of Energy and Power Development as the sole aggregator.
The Ministry of Energy and Power Development is on record as insisting that Government had made Powertel the sole authorised aggregator for the prepaid electricity tokens with mostly its institutions allowed to be engaged as vendors. The Herald
Herald Reporter
Auditor-General Ms Mildred Chiri has issued adverse reports on 22 ministries for poor corporate
governance, abuse of fund accounts, flouting procurement procedures among other ills, while
10 ministries were given the thumbs up.
In her executive summary for Government ministries 2013 audit report, Ms Chiri said the 22
ministries constituted 67 percent of ministries and there was need for them to pull up their
socks.
“Having obtained sufficient appropriate audit evidence, most of the audit conclusions noted
misstatements, material to the accounts. At least 31 ministries out of 33, about 94 percent, had
material audit findings warranting management’s attention. As such 22, about 67 percent of the
ministries had qualified (adverse) audit opinions on their appropriation accounts,” reads the
executive summary prepared by Ms Chiri.
“One of the ministries had a disclaimer of opinion. Out of the 10 ministries with unqualified
(non-adverse) audit opinions, either had other material issues reported on. There were 19 fund
accounts out of 40 audited had modified (qualified, disclaimer or adverse) audit opinions.”
Ms Chiri noted irregularities on overtime allowances.
“There were payments of overtime allowances to employees and bonuses to casual workers
without approval from Treasury and the Civil Service Commission,” she said.
On procurement of goods and services, Ms Chiri said rules were flouted in most ministries.
“This resulted in flouting of formal and informal tender procedures, failure to purchase to best
advantage, payment before supply of goods and purchase of overpriced goods and services,”
read her report.
“Some ministries were effecting payments to suppliers without the prerequisite supporting
documents such as invoices, receipts and delivery notes. These deficiencies, if not addressed
would continue to drain Government of critical resources.”
On revenue collection and debt recovery, audit revealed significant variances amounting to $409
million between the Exchequer bank account and Public Finance management system.
“Due to failure by ministries to maintain proper accounting records like properties registers,
cash books and ledgers, the amounts disclosed under revenue and debtors were rendered
unreliable,” she said.
“Weaknesses in debt recovery systems in some ministries resulted in government being owed
more than $50 million in respect of various debtors, long outstanding travel and subsistence
advances, outstanding revenue (rentals, survey fees and surcharges) and disallowances.”
She said if these amounts were recovered it would go a long way in funding government
programmes in dire need of funds.
Ms Chasi said she feared that the money might not be recovered.
“Furthermore audit revealed that a total of $3,3 million was advanced by Government to three
parastatals as loans without signing loan agreements. In addition to compromising
accountability and transparency, the absence of an agreement outlining obligations of each
party may render the recoverability of the loans difficult,” she said.
Due to weak internal control systems in most ministries unsupported payments were made and
losses resulting from suspected fraudulent activities were incurred involving amounts ranging
from $3 000 to $3,5 million. Herald
This one picture from the shoot has since gone viral – and it’s not difficult to see why.
Photographer Joshua told BuzzFeed News:
I shot the photo on a property owned by Brady’s parents. They have over 150 acres along the Siletz River [in Oregon]. The whole family is very into elk hunting and even hosts Make-A-Wish elk hunts on occasion.
Stevie and Brady came up with the idea and surprised me with it during engagement photos. We worked together to figure out how the image should look and set it up quickly before sunset.
It was rather tough to get the shot though, since Brady could only be upside down for a few minutes. Brady tied his own knots and got himself hooked up to the tractor and then his dad lifted him up slowly.
