EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Audit mandate
My duties as set out in the Constitution of Zimbabwe and amplified in the Audit Office Act [Chapter 22:18] are, in addition to examining, auditing and reporting on accounts of all persons entrusted with public monies or state property, to audit all institutions and agencies of government, and at the request of government carry out special audits of the accounts of any statutory body or government controlled entity.

Audit approach
I conducted my audit in accordance with the International Standards on Supreme Audit Institutions (ISSAIs) and the International Standards on Auditing (ISAs). Those Standards require that I comply with ethical requirements and plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance whether the financial statements are free from material misstatement. My audit approach was designed to enable me to express an opinion on the State Enterprises and Parastatals’ financial statements.

All aspects of the entities’ activities and procedures may not have been examined. I consider maintenance of adequate internal controls to be the responsibility of management. My work cannot therefore, be expected to identify all weaknesses in the systems and procedures, which a special investigation directed at those areas might reveal. As to the possibility of fraud, I plan my audit to have a reasonable expectation of its disclosure if the potential effects of the fraud would be material in the financial statements. However, there are many kinds of fraudulent activities, particularly those involving defalcation, forgery, collusion and management override of controls, which would be unreasonable to expect the normal audit to uncover.

The principal objective of my audit procedures is to enable me to express an opinion on the truth and fairness of the financial statements as a whole. An audit opinion is based on the concept of reasonable assurance. It is not a guarantee that the financial statements are free of misstatements.

Financial reporting framework
All the State Enterprises and Parastatals financial statements are prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards as provided for by the Public Finance Management Act [Chapter 22:19]. The entities are responsible for the preparation and fair presentation of these financial statements in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

The report outlines material audit findings noted during the audits of the financial statements of the State Enterprises and Parastatals. The audit findings are classified under Governance issues, Revenue collection, management and debt recovery, Procurement of goods and services, and Employment costs. Also included under each audited account are possible risks/implications associated with the audit findings, audit recommendations, management responses in respect of the findings, audit comments to management responses where necessary and the audit opinion thereto. Although some of the issues identified are common within the audited entities, the majority of the findings are not the same due to the nature, uniqueness and varying mandates of the entities. The highlights are summarised below.