Collaboration key to combating revenue leakages—Zacc

INCREASED collaboration between Government departments is critical in plugging revenue leakages at a time when the country is losing millions of dollars due to tax evasion and corruption.

Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) chairperson, Justice Loice MatandaMoyo, said this while addressing delegates at the recent Chartered Governance and Accountancy Institute of Zimbabwe conference here.

Entities such as Zacc, the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra), the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) and the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, are already sharing notes and strategising towards enhancing accountability and transparency.

In line with the Second Republic’s thrust on ‘zero tolerance’ to corruption, Justice Matanda-Moyo said the commission was also working with internal auditors at various organisations in the country and counterparts outside the country’s borders to expose fraudulent activities, especially targeting recovering stolen assets.

“We have come up with a dashboard where we monitor activities. A lot of leakages are a result of tax evasion so we are working with Zimra,” she said. “We are also engaging internal auditors of organisations and they are helping us in
implementing the anti-corruption drive.

“Internal audit departments have not been doing their work but we are happy that most of them are now cooperating.”
Zimbabweans should shun corruption and work together towards the attainment of an upper middle-income economy by 2030, said the Zacc chair.

“We are also working with other countries to help us with their norms and cultures as we recover assets. We are going to be doing investigations everywhere and for you, the role of accounting in fighting corruption is reporting and ensuring that there is good corporate governance,” she said.

“Let’s reject all forms of corruption because a corruption free Zimbabwe begins with all of us.”

ZTA acting chief executive, Mr Givemore Chidzidzi, said the tourism sector was among the sectors affected by revenue leakages.

“We are worried about too much leakages in the tourism industry and we are working with the Reserve Bank to try and plug the leakages,” he said. — The Chronicle