The long-awaited National Social Security Authority (NSSA) forensic audit report was tabled before Parliament yesterday by Labour and Social Welfare Minister Sekai Nzenza.

The Minister emphasized that the forensic audit report carried “serious irregularities”. The audit covers the period January 2015 to February 2018.

The report’s contents, which are yet top be publicized, will be debated on by Parliament when legislators get individual copies.

But the long withhold of the forensic report has raised concern among some observers that it may have been doctored.

But Minister Nzenza said delays in releasing the report to Parliament was partly a result of the Ministry’s engagement of a team of lawyers to decipher its contents first, and the need to follow due process.

Former Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister Prisca Mupfumira was arrested last week, and accused of siphoning a staggering US$95 million from NSSA during her time at the helm of the ministry, which oversees the pension fund.

“The final report was presented to me and the newly constituted (NSSA) board in February 2019. Thereafter, the board identified key issues emerging from the NSSA forensic audit. These issues relate to corporate governance, investments, properties, Information Communication Technology and Human Resources,” said the Minister.

“In all these key issues that I have mentioned, there are some significant irregularities. In view of that, as the Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare, in the spirit of maintaining transparency, I proceeded to engage a team of legal experts, whose role was to provide counsel on each of the emerging issues from the forensic report.

“The engagement of lawyers required the procurement process and due diligence. This process of engaging lawyers is two months, hence the delay in tabling this report.”