Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Public Accounts Chairperson Paurina Mpariwa has raised the issue of illicit financial flows during the stakeholders’ round table on the implementation of accrual accounting in Zimbabwe.
The round table that took place in Harare today was attended by various stakeholders who were discussing on Zimbabwe’s migration from cash basis to accrual concept. Under the accrual basis of accounting, expenses are matched with the related revenues and or are reported when the expense occurs, not when the cash is paid according to Accounting Coach.
On cash basis which is currently being used in the country revenue is reported on the income statement in the period in which the cash is received from customers while on the accrual basis of accounting revenues are reported on the income statement when they are earned—which often occurs before the cash is received from the customers.
The accrual basis is expected to improve the way accounting is being done in Zimbabwe as the country witnesses an increase in the use of plastic money.
“The government has lost a lot of resources due to illicit finacial flows,” said Mpariwa.
Mpariwa also included corruption in the government saying that if it was not addressed there would be no transparency. The chairperson said that the government has people who do the jobs they are not professionally qualified but they were not reported.
“We have heard a lot of corruption but no one has gone to Chikurubi!”
Reports on corruption in the Zimbabwean government have been in the media but arrests are yet to be witnessed. The MP also said that most of the ministries were not submitting accounting records to the auditor general.
“We are actually worried that we have published the 2016 report with other parastatals not sending their 2014, 2015 report,” Mupariwa said. “We would end up summoning those to understand the problem.”
The government set the Public Accounting committee under Section 299 of the Constitution. Representatives from the World Bank (WB) and the Department for International Development (DFID) also presented during on accrual accounting in the country. Accrual accounting migration has been done in developed countries such as the United Kingdom.
