Procurement scandal hits TIMB, bus goes ‘missing’

HARARE – The Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) is facing renewed scrutiny over financial governance and procurement irregularities following the release of the latest Auditor-General’s report for the financial year ended December 31, 2025.

​According to the audit findings, TIMB failed to resolve an outstanding procurement query regarding a passenger bus that was paid for or procured but was never delivered to the institution. Under the section reviewing the “Delivery of procured goods,” the Auditor-General noted that the finding from prior years remained completely unaddressed, succinctly stating, “The bus was not delivered.”

​The undelivered vehicle is part of a broader pattern of uncorrected operational and financial anomalies highlighted in the report, which tracked progress on outstanding audit findings from 2021, 2022, and 2024. The Auditor-General noted that the board “did not make significant progress in addressing audit findings,” with two critical findings remaining completely unaddressed and one only partially resolved.

​Among the key anomalies flagged in the report is TIMB’s ongoing failure to recover funds that were mistakenly paid out to former staff members. Under the “Recovery of funds” section, the report revealed that “the funds erroneously transferred to former employees had not been recovered.”

​Additionally, the audit exposed severe inefficiencies in the recovery of loans issued under the board’s “Special Projects.” The report classified this issue as only partially addressed, pointing out dismal collection figures where “the Board’s recovery rate of the loans are 10% for ZWG loans and 4% for USD loans.”

​Despite issuing an unmodified (clean) opinion on TIMB’s financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2025—confirming that the accounts fairly present the board’s financial position in accordance with International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSASs)—the Auditor-General expressed concern over the persistent lack of corrective action on governance oversight, unrecovered public funds, and non-delivery of capital assets.