Country flag carrier is currently facing a backlog in the production of financial statements dating to 2016 stemming from challenges facing the airlines since 2011; Air Zimbabwe Acting CEO Joseph Makonise revealed to the Portfolio Committee on Budget, Finance and Economic Development on Friday last week.
The CEO, updating on the production of financial statements said the 2016 accounts were signed off on 29 January this year, while the 2017 accounts were being finalised by the auditors and drafts were expected to be availed last on 13 March 2020 for review by auditors. The 2018 financial statement trial balance had already been availed on Friday, last week and the audit as scheduled will commence on Monday today.
“Our target is to ensure that all the accounts are up to date by the end of December 2020. This is why even our 2019 audit is provisionally scheduled to commence on the first of June. So we are positive that by the end of December 31, 2020, our accounts will be up to date,” Makonise said.
In 2018, Justice Minister, Ziyambi Ziyambi appointed an administrator to run and revive the challenged Air Zimbabwe but this has seemed to be a hard task with investors shunning away from the indebted parastatal.
Air Zimbabwe once stopped operations for almost one and a half years contributing to the delay in the production of financial statements according to the CEO.
“After operations commenced and as soon as the operations commenced, there was also a forensic audit which had to be carried out and that took two years. During that period, KPMG, the auditors that were there were then unable to complete their work until the forensic audit was completed. So that contributed to the delay in the 2019 financial accounting not being there today,” Makonise said.
“Further they were also challenges with the staff turnover, people left and then as they left, others that took over did not have any handover. So that meant a lot of time was spent at coping through detail to ensure that the correct information was provided.” (sic)
Air Zimbabwe’s delay in the production of financial statements has been followed by reports of three planes missing, with the firm’s corporate services manager and spokesman Tafadzwa Mazonde being forced to reveal that what was missing are documents on the planes.
Although there are no financial statements, Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe (CAAZ), responding to concerns raised by the Auditor-General after auditing says the bulk of the $44.1 million of debtors’ value in the authority is attributed to Air Zimbabwe, National Handling Services and Catercraft.
The United States of America once issued a statement warning its citizens from using the airlines for security reasons.