Former Netone CEO Acusses PricewaterhouseCoopers For “Unprofessional Conduct” During Netone’s Forensic Audit, Blames It For His Arrest

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Reward Kangai

It seems former Netone CEO, Reward Kangai doesn’t easily bury the hatchet. The former CEO of the state-owned company, Netone is now dragging renowned consultancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers into the picture in his quest for freedom. He is accusing PWC of causing his arrest owing to the fact that it stated wrong figures in its forensic audit for Netone. In case you didn’t know, the forensic audit was made in connection to the criminal charges filed against Mr. Kangai back in January this year.

Mr. Kangai has written to the regional headquarters of PwC to complain about the conduct of its Zimbabwean office. Talking about the complaint he lodged, Mr. Kangai wrote on Twitter;

I have lodged a complaint to the regional PWC HQ on the unprofessional conduct of the local PWC office during the NetOne forensic audit, whose report was used by Supa Mandiwanzira to cause my arrest…Section 8.8 of the NetOne Board minutes of 14 Sept 2009, raised Management authority limit to US$250 000, yet PWC forensic audit wrongfully stated that US$80 000 spent to purchase concrete mix for base station construction was done without Board approval.

And part of the email, he sent to PWC read;

Thank you for your prompt response. Kindly, please receive the attached copy of NetOne Board minutes 14th September 2009, which gave authority limit of purchases of up to US$250 000 without the need for Board approval as shown in Section 8.8 the minutes and also the findings of the PWC forensic audit in section 5.309. Thus, the charge against me raised as a result of the PWC forensic audit report is false. There are several such wrong findings made by PWC Zimbabwe, which resulted in my arrest on the 10th January 2018 and I accordingly, hold PWC responsible for causing my arrest.

Suppose that PWC made a mistake in its audit and acknowledges it Mr. Kangai can only be absolved of some criminal charges as he is facing 20 counts of criminal abuse of office charges.

For consultancy firms like PWC, KPMG or Deloitte perception and reputation are critical. In the event that PWC figures out that it made a mistake, it could deal a slight blow to its reputation. I can assure you that such stuff is noted and taken into account by responsible corporations. However, PWC may not lose customers, but it may be subjected to a very different level of scrutiny by regulatory bodies.

2 comments

  1. Garikai Dzoma

    Might I say contrary to popular myths an auditor is not a magician. They make mistakes all the time, the issue is never whether a mistake has been made it is whether such a mistake is material. I can assure you that almost never happens. I have colleagues at PCW and they are good at what they do. Another thing to note is this: An auditor is a watchdog not a bloodhound

  2. Anonymous

    Techzim you really ought to stop being a tabloid and posting these half baked stories which are terrible. This is on the back of a cautionary statement issued by Econet. Pathetic

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