By Marshall Bwanya
HARARE — The Agricultural Marketing Authority (AMA) has remained tight-lipped over a damning Auditor-General’s report detailing serious financial management concerns.
According to the report, the state-run agricultural regulator failed to correct accounting misstatements, remained behind on statutory obligations and still owed a foreign creditor the equivalent of ZWG2.3 million.
Auditor-General Vimbai Chikwenhere issued a qualified opinion on AMA’s 2024 financial statements, citing non-compliance with International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) relating to property, plant and equipment, hyperinflationary financial reporting and accounting errors.
While the findings do not, on their own, establish criminal wrongdoing, they expose significant failures in AMA’s financial reporting and compliance systems.
AMA is a statutory body established under the Agricultural Marketing Authority Act [Chapter 18:24] and falls under the Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Water Resources.
It regulates and develops the marketing of agricultural products, including grains, oilseeds and livestock, with the mandate of promoting orderly, efficient and fair agricultural markets.
Chikwenhere said she had previously raised concerns over AMA’s valuation of property, plant and equipment amounting to ZWG37.3 million, after the authority used different valuation methods for its assets.
“The prior year financial statements were modified due to non-compliance with IPSAS 45 – ‘Property, Plant and Equipment’ on valuation of property, plant and equipment amounting to ZWG 37.3 million,” the Auditor-General said.
AMA had valued land and buildings using market values while other property, plant and equipment was adjusted using gross replacement values, contrary to the prescribed accounting standards.
Chikwenhere said AMA had failed to correct the misstatement in its current-year accounts as required under IPSAS 3.
“Inflation Adjusted amounts in terms of IPSAS 10 – ‘Financial Reporting in Hyperinflationary Economies’ were determined basing on misstated historical property, plant and equipment balance, consequently, corresponding amounts for property and equipment on the final adjusted Statement of Financial Performance, the inflation adjusted Statement of Financial Position, the inflation adjusted Statement of Changes in Net Assets, and the inflation adjusted Statement of Cash Flows remain misstated.
“The effects of the misstatements have not been quantified,” said Chikwenhere.
Although the authority subsequently conducted an asset revaluation in 2024, the Auditor-General’s report said some of the outstanding concerns had not been resolved.
One of the unresolved issues was AMA’s failure to bring its statutory obligations up to date.
“The Authority was not up to date with NSSA and ZIMDEF and had a payment plan for PAYE,” Chikwenhere said.
NSSA is the National Social Security Authority while ZIMDEF is the Zimbabwe Manpower Development Fund.
AMA also failed to resolve an earlier finding concerning late payment of creditors, with the audit establishing that the authority still had an outstanding foreign liability equivalent to ZWG2.3 million.
“The Authority still has an outstanding foreign liability of equivalent to ZWG2.3 million,” the report said.
Chikwenhere said two of the four audit findings followed up during the latest audit had been addressed, while two remained outstanding.
The valuation of property was deemed addressed after AMA conducted a 2024 asset revaluation, while the separation of land and buildings following the revaluation also resolved another finding.
However, statutory obligations and late payment of creditors remained unresolved.
Efforts to obtain an explanation from AMA chief executive Alice Mapfiza on Tuesday were initially unsuccessful.
Mapfiza referred questions to the authority’s Marketing and Public Relations Manager, Tina Nleya.
Nleya, when contacted for comment on Tuesday, said she was in a meeting and would have to obtain the information from AMA’s finance team.
“Ibam in a meeting. This is something i’d have to find out from the Finance team.
“I will get back to you when i find out,” Nleya said.
Nleya’s subsequent calls went unanswered and she did not respond to follow-up questions sent to her.
Mapfiza’s phone also rang unanswered and she did not respond to follow-up questions.
AMA was specifically asked to disclose how much it currently owes NSSA and ZIMDEF, the timeline for clearing the arrears and the status of its PAYE payment plan.
Questions were also sent seeking clarification on whether AMA had quantified and corrected the financial impact of the earlier property, plant and equipment misstatement, and whether the 2024 revaluation had fully resolved the accounting problem.
The authority was further asked to identify the creditor owed the foreign liability equivalent to ZWG2.3 million, explain what caused the liability and how long it had remained outstanding, as well as outline measures being taken to settle it.
No substantive response had been received by publication.
The Auditor-General’s findings come as AMA positions itself as a market regulator and development agency driving reforms across Zimbabwe’s agricultural value chains.
Mapfiza has previously said the authority wants to become a modern, data-driven and farmer-centred market regulator by 2030.
The audit findings, however, raise questions about the authority’s financial controls and its ability to comply with statutory and accounting obligations while carrying out that mandate.
