Zimbabwe Parastatals Improve Financial Reporting, but Governance Weaknesses Persist: AG
Matebeleland Pulse Reporter
Zimbabwe’s state-owned enterprises and parastatals have improved their financial reporting, but accountability and governance weaknesses remain a major challenge across the public sector, according to the Auditor-General’s Report on State-Owned Enterprises and Parastatals for the Financial Year Ended 31 December 2025.
The report, submitted to Parliament on 26 June 2026, covers 186 financial statements from 152 audited entities.
Auditor-General Vimbai Chikwenhere said the report is intended to improve “public sector transparency, accountability, good corporate governance and service delivery.”
She also noted “a positive trend” in financial reporting, saying more entities are bringing arrear accounts up to date. However, she said “sustained effort is still needed to strengthen timely financial reporting.”
The report says 44 entities (20%) were “still not up to date with their financial statement submissions for 2025.” It adds that arrear accounts create “gaps for accountability because entities fail to produce supporting documents or reconcile audit variances after a long period of time.”
At the reporting date, 174 public entities were up to date, compared with 129 in the previous year, reflecting an improvement in submission compliance.
Despite this progress, the report says 41 entities had conditions that “may cast significant doubt on the entity’s ability to continue as a going concern” due to net liabilities, undercapitalisation or challenges in servicing legacy loans.
Governance was the most significant area of concern, accounting for 222 issues, representing 70% of all audit findings. Other findings related to revenue collection and debt recovery, asset management, procurement, employment matters and service delivery.
The report also records mixed audit outcomes, with 117 unmodified opinions, 46 qualified opinions, 20 adverse opinions and three disclaimers of opinion issued across the audited entities.
Overall, the report shows that while more public entities are complying with financial reporting requirements, governance, accountability and financial management weaknesses continue to pose significant challenges across Zimbabwe’s state-owned enterprises and parastatals.
