Story by Parvel Makona
A Harare City Council employee has appeared in court facing allegations of manipulating the local authority’s financial management system and siphoning over US$20 000.
David Madzivanyika (60) appeared before the Harare Magistrates’ Court this Monday on fraud charges.
According to court papers, the alleged offence came to light in late November last year, after the council’s revenue division raised concerns with the Information Communication Technology department following queries from clients over discrepancies in their account balances.
Investigations by the local authority revealed inconsistencies between figures recorded in sub-ledgers and those reflected in the main ledgers.
The matter was escalated, prompting the engagement of CCG, a South Africa-based systems vendor responsible for the Sage Evolution Enterprise Resource Planning system used by the council.
The vendor’s investigations reportedly uncovered manipulation of data within the accounts system, leading to the development of a monitoring script to track the activities of super users in the database.
An audit trail allegedly showed that a super user account assigned to Madzivanyika had been used to alter figures in the system.
The case was subsequently referred to the council’s audit division, whose investigations indicated that the alleged manipulation resulted in a loss exceeding US$20 000.
Madzivanyika was granted bail of US$100 and is expected to return to court at a later date.
