Tertiary education ministry can’t account for US$500 000 Covid funds

THE Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science and Technology Development cannot account for more than US$500 000 half a million in seed money disbursed towards capacitating seven state universities to produce personal protective equipment (PPE), hand sanitisers and face masks during the Covid-19 pandemic.

RUVIMBO MUCHENJE

This was revealed by Auditor-General Rhea Kujinga revealed in her report titled Value for Money Audit Report on Covid-19 Support Towards Production of Personal Protective Equipment and Sanitisers under the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science and Technology Development. The report is dated 15 January 2024, but has not been carried by the media.

In her report, Kujinga says universities got more than they had budgeted for and cannot account for the excess.

The universities were supposed to submit production budgets so as to get funds that would address their needs, but excess funds with no supporting budgets amounting to ZW$9 million (US$549 414 at the prevailing official rate of 17.42) at the material time was unearthed.

“I noted that from the ZWL$42 933 870 (USD$2 462 489) disbursed to universities, a total of ZWL$33 377 460.75 (USD$1,915,932.5383158 million) had production budgets while production budgets for ZWL$9 566 409 were not availed for audit,” said Kujinga.

The money which was unaccounted for is 22% of the total budget.

In response, the ministry said it would look into the discrepancy.

“A follow up will be made on the issue. All releases were made based on requests by institutions,” responded the ministry.

The table below shows how much was disbursed to universities in total.

In her report, Kujinga noted that as per the circular released by the ministry ahead of the set up of these business units at universities, production budgets should have been submitted to the ministry and funds disbursed as per the request.

“The Ministry circular dated March 27 2020 and interviews with MHTEISTD management revealed that it was a requirement that production budgets must be submitted before the release of the funds,” she said.

“From the information above, universities received more than what they had budgeted for. I was not availed with the budgets for the excess funds received. This may have been caused by the lack of effective controls in the management of the approved budget and non-compliance with operational policies.”

She also noted that some of the institutions (special business units or SBUs) were preparing monthly financial statements while others were not, but, all seven did not remit to the ministry as is required.

“During my visit to the university SBUs, I noted that only UZ and MSU were preparing the monthly financial statements but they were not submitting them to the ministry as required. HIT [Harare Institute of Technology] and NUST [National University of Science and Technology] did not prepare the monthly financial statements. An interview with the MHTEISTD [Ministry of Higher Education] revealed that no financial statements were submitted by the SBUs and there was no evidence to suggest that the Ministry made some follow-ups to the universities in this regard," said Kujinga.

Management at the ministry told the AG that head office was furnished with the statements, but they were not availed for audit.

“Observation is noted and acknowledged. However, production reports were later on furnished to Head Office. The financial statements are now being produced and maintained at the institutions. Universities are sending Annual Audited Financial Statements to the ministry, copies which are available for your verification,” responded the ministry management.

Kujinga further noted that acquittals that were supposed to be done to the ministry of Finance by the ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education were not done.

“My review of records at the institutions revealed that acquittals of seed money were sent to the MHTEISTD between May 2020 and December, 2020. However, the MHTEISTD could not avail the records. Management acknowledged through a management representation letter dated June 9, 2021, that they did not have the acquittals on file despite universities having sent them to the ministry. This was caused by poor record keeping resulting in the MHTEISTD not assessing if the funds released had been fully used for the intended purpose. Therefore, there were no subsequent acquittals made by the MHTEISTD to the Ministry of Finance,” she said.

Management responded that it was not possible to acquit  because there was skeletal staff during the pandemic.

“The ministry takes note of the observation. As indicated in your observation, the Management Response acquittals by institutions are now available. During that working time, Ministry then was working with skeletal staff,” the Higher Education ministry responded.