MDC A’s audited financial statements, an insult to supporters

By Polite Ndlovu

This analysis is based on MDCA accounts audit for the period from the 27th of May when the current party leadership was elected to 31 December 2019.

Coltart’s Description

This is what MDCA Treasurer General, David Coltart who is also a lawyer by profession and a former education minister during the unity government described as a turning point from the ZANU PF culture that for the past 40 years marred by lack of transparency. In his words it’s a get back to the people, a culture the MDCA is going to cultivate throughout its reign.

“For the last 40 years of Zanu-PF government, we have seen the squandering of our wealth, where a tiny oligarchy has become obscenely wealthy on the backs of poor people. But how has that happened, because they have not been held accountable. They have squandered state resources, national resources for their own benefit at the expense of the people.

How do we as a party intend to tackle that, with a basic principle that charity begins at home. We have to be the change that we want to see in society,” he added.

“So when the MDC-Alliance congress was held in Gweru last year, one of the most important resolutions at that congress was that we would be held accountable to the highest international standards ourselves. And we resolved that our accounts will be submitted to an independent audit by a firm of chartered accountants internationally recognized and that is what we have done,”

“In doing so we are saying that when we come to power and it’s not if, it’s a matter of when. When Advocate Nelson Chamisa is President of the Republic of Zimbabwe, we will apply the standards that we are applying for ourselves to every public institution and to our nation,” said Coltat in a press conference.

The quest by MDCA to turn away from the purported ZANU PF lack of transparency in the 40 years of its rule  an insult to the intelligence of their supporters. It’s a lie, the document they released is substandard and does not reflect the work of independent auditors and qualified accountants. It’s rather a campaign strategy that is subject to criticism.

Surplus

Just like the ZANU PF’s Mthuli Ncube, they claim that they had a audits are showing that the party’s surplus (ZWL $743 000), yet, some 2018 election agents and party workers claim they have not received their payments. There are also claims of a missing 2 billion from the treasury. So the talk of a surplus is a tragedy of a cooked figure and an insult to the party supporters.

Delay

This audit report was long overdue and represented the financial year 27th of May when the current party leadership was elected to 31 December 2019. Quizzed on why the delay in the audit report, Coltart highlighted that the Covid-19 pandemic had delayed the auditors from finishing the process on time. This is another cooked response and insult to the party supporters. During the lockdown people worked from home and there were procedures put in place especially stabilisation and observing all the WHO protocols. For a biggest political organisation like MDC with a surplus in their bank accounts they could have afforded.

Income and source of income

The financial statement of an organisation shows the income and source of that income. A mere look at the MDCA financial statements “expose the great incompetence of the leaders & their so-called Auditors (if they exist) MDC-A is a Nonprofit Organisation & the Cashflow Statement should reflect the income & the source of income,” Kudzai Mutisi on Twitter. It is true that the MDCA did not indicate their income and its source.

Non-Current Assets

The non-current assets of an organisation include the list of assets that organisation have. These assets may include the chairs, tables, printers, cars, buildings, printers, stationary and the computers.

However, for the MDCA that claims the Harvest House (HH) is their personal property and that resided at the HH during the period in question, they only have computers and nothing else. This is also another tragedy of miscalculation and an insult to the followers. It’s really an approved crap the so-called independent auditors.

Unless they claim that all their assets are rented serve for the computers only. But how? This is the same party that occupied the HH and all the Provincial and District Offices inherited from Morgan Tswangirai’s MDCT, Biti’s PDP and Welshman Ncube’s MDC.

Cooked figure

There are is a clear unprofessional cooking of the figures. They claimed to have only computers in their inventory. But the cost of these computers is highly questionable. It seems they have a world’s unique and distinct type of a computer.

This is a time when the USD1 was equivalent to RTGs $1.20. But the MDCA computer cost 50000 each. It’s really an insult to a normal person, it would’ve been better if the numbers were properly cooked, not this insult. They cooked the books and there is no any other justification.

Profit and Loss

MDC-A is a non-profit making organisation. It is a political party whose income is derived from donations, subscriptions, fund raising and political parties fund.

It is shocking that the MDC Zimbabwe came out with what they called the profit and loss for a nonprofit making organisation. This is unrealistic and a tragedy of miscalculation and an insult to the party supporters.

Conclusion

The MDC-A did not produce a meaningful financial audit statement but rather they came out with a new campaign strategy with an aim to present themselves as smart than ZANU-PF and all other political formations. However, the result was an utter nonsense and insult.

I am a human being, I might have missed it. I stand to be corrected if there is anything I wrongly presented.

–My Gokwe

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