Detailed Record of Experience – Submission to the Chartered Institute of

Management Accountants(CIMA) in partial fulfilment of the Requirements for

Full Membership.
Submitted By
PATRICK MWASHITA CIMA CONTACT ID 1-1TUSX6

After leaving college, on completion of my Bachelor of Commerce Honours

Degree in Finance at the National University of Science and Technology(NUST) I
joined Mobil Oil Corporation in April 1999 as a Graduate Trainee Accountant
responsible for Projects, Assets and Debtors. Mobil Oil Corporation had it’s
head office in the United States of America. I was based at the Harare Regional
Head Office which was responsible for operations in SADC countries such as
Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, and South Africa.

I joined Mobil Oil Corporation as a Graduate Trainee in 1999 and I was

reporting to the Finance Manager. Mobil Oil Corporation was a subsidiary
Mobil Oil with its owners and head office based in the United States of
America(USA). The products that were being sold by Mobil Oil Corporation
included Diesel, Petrol, Paraffin and other petroleum products such as vehicle
and machine lubricants. Mobil Oil Corporation had it’s head office in the
Harare Central Business District(CBD). Mobil Oil Corporation was divided into
the following divisions: Marketing Logistics and Deliveries, Engineering,
Finance, Human Resources, Health Safety and Environment, Planning and
Internal Audit. It had bulk storage facilities in major cities such as Harare ,
Bulawayo, Gweru, Kwekwe, Masvingo and Mutare. It also had many petroleum
retail stations throughout the country. In my day to day work I used Microsoft
Excel, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Power point, and the
ACCPAC system. My duties were as follows:

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Post – Accountant - Projects, Assets and Debtors – Mobil Oil Corporation
April 1999 to December 1999.
Duties
i. I would approve of project payments, including professional fees, after
receiving them from the Engineering Department in line with the work
done, the project budget and the project procedures. I would receive
payment instructions approved by the Engineering Manager and would
check whether they are still within the approved budget and whether all
procedures have been followed before endorsing them for payment. I
indicate project ledger to which each payment should be posted in the
ACCPAC system.
ii. I would produce monthly project analytical reports for the works-in-
progress showing the project budget, amount spent on the project to
date and the amount available for spending on the remainder of the
project. Any mispostings are identified through analysis of each
transaction and journals passed in the ACCPAC system. I would export
the reports from the ACCPAC system into Microsoft Excel for further
analysis and organise. The reports will be submitted to the Finance
Manager for review and approval before they are distributed to
management. I would also present the reports in project review
meetings convened by the Managing Director.
iii. I would open a physical file for each project which was updated weekly
and reports with transaction reports that were being printed from the
ACCPAC system.
iv. I was part of the team to inspect the progress of each project monthly
up to it’s completion. The other team members would be the Engineer
in charge of the project, the Finance Manager and the Engineering
Manager.
v. Upon receipt of a project certificate of completion from the Engineering
Department, I transfer project costs from the works-in-progress ledger
to the Fixed Assets Register in the ACCPAC system. This is done through
passing ACCPAC journals that are approved by the Finance Manager
before being posted.
vi. I run the monthly depreciation journal at month end in the ACCPAC
system by following the menu path in the system.
vii. I capture transactions in the ACPAC Accounting System – payments and
acquisitions, depreciation, transfers, revaluations and disposals. This is
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 done through passing journals that are approved by the Finance
Manager before posting.
viii. After completion of each project I would present reports in project
review meetings in order to learn from past mistakes and successes.
Past successes and failures will be shared among all departments in
order to improve future project implementation by all departments. The
project review meetings were convened by the Managing Director and
attended by Executive and Senior Management.
Post – Accountant – Treasury and Cash Flow Planning – Mobil Oil
Corporation January 2000 to October 2000
Duties
i. I would forecast future cash outflows and cash inflows based on the
targets outlined in the strategic and operational plans. I would use
forecast monthly cash inflows from sales and accounts receivables as
well as forecast payments in order to establish the forecast cash
balances at the end of each month. I would use planning information
from the Marketing and Sales and from Finance and Planning
departments to do the forecasting using Microsoft Excel.
ii. I would use the above stated forecasts to recommend to the Finance
Manager for action to be taken to avert cash deficits by arranging
overdraft facilities with the company’s bankers. The Finance would
review the cash forecasts, review and approve it with the
recommendations. The Finance Manager would lead the team to
negotiate with the bankers of which I would be part of the team.
iii. I would monitor daily cash inflows against cash outflows in order to
ensure a healthy balance between the two is maintained. I use
information from the daily bank statements and planned payments from
the Accounts section and all the departments in order to forecast the
daily bank balances. I would use Microsoft Excel to do the forecasts.
iv. I would use the Intra-company system to process intra-company
payments and receipts between Mobil Oil Zimbabwe and the
Corporation’s affiliates in other countries. Pending receipts from the
company’s affiliates would appear in the system. I would use payment
documents to process payments to other affiliates using the Intra-
company computer system.

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 v. I would recommend to the Finance Manager investment of excess cash
on the money market through the company’s bankers. The Finance
Manager would review the situation before approving the
recommendation with or without amendment. After the
recommendation is approved I would phone the bankers to arrange for
short term investments facilities. I would use the quotations of interest
rates from different banks and recommend the best one for approval by
the Finance Manager. On approval of the recommendation I would
phone the approved bank to place the investment.
Post – Accountant – Costing and Management Accounting – Mobil Oil
Corporation November 2000 to October 2001 - Duties
i. I would perform product costing of fuels and other petroleum products
using the ACCPAC costing module on receipt of each batch of stock. I
would use delivery schedules of fuel and petroleum products from the
Logistics Department to calculate the landed cost of each product. I
would also use the cost of the product, cost of freight, and all other
costs and taxes paid in the course the product into the depot where it
can be sold. I would then submit the calculated product costings to the
Finance Manager for review and approval.
ii. I would use the above data to establish and calculate profit margins for
each product line using the ACCPAC system and Microsoft Excel
monthly. I would then submit the reports with recommendations to the
Finance Manager for review and approval.
iii. I would track the corporation’s profit margins through the ACCPAC
system to determine whether or not targets have been met. I would do
this by downloading reports on profit margins from ACCPAC into
Microsoft Excel for further analysis. I would submit the reports to the
Finance Manager for review and approval.
iv. I would present the cost management reports in Executive Management
meetings convened by the Managing Director and attended by all
Executive Management including the Finance Manager.
v. I produced management reports which include Statement of
Comprehensive Income, Statement of Financial Position, Statement of
Cash flow, Profitability/Margin Analysis, Variance Analysis and
recommending possible strategies of enhancing sales or controlling
costs. I would download reports from the ACCPAC system to Microsoft

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 Excel. The reports are submitted to the Finance Manager for review and
approval before their circulation.
Post – Accountant – Financial Accounting – Mobil Oil Corporation November
2001 to Dec 2002
Duties
i. I would maintain the General Ledger with an up to date Chart of
Accounts. I would receive approved requests from other Accountants to
create new General Ledger accounts and use it to create the accounts in
the ACCPAC system.
ii. I would post or retrieve transactions from the sub-ledgers such as the
cash book, creditors, debtors, fixed assets among others to the General
Ledger. At the end of each day I would log into the ACCPAC in order to
view batches from the sub-ledgers that are pending. I would then use
my ACCPAC profile to post the batches to the General Ledger.
iii. I would produce monthly analytical reports for each sub-ledger and for
the General Ledger accounts. I would submit the reports to the Finance
Manager together with recommendations on any issues identified.
iv. I would use the above reports to detect transaction misposts or errors
and generate correcting journals. I would submit the journals to the
Finance Manager for review and approval before posting them into the
ACCPAC system.
v. I would print and analyse the Trial Balance to check for any abnormal
trends in the figures. I would go through the individual transactions
where there are unusual trends. If errors are detected I would create
ACCPAC correcting journals and present them to the Finance Manager
for review and approval.
vi. I prepared periodic financial statements in line with the requirements of
the shareholders(or the Board) and statutory requirements. These
include the Statement of Comprehensive Income, Statement of Financial
Position, Statement of Cash Flows among others. I downloaded all the
reports from ACCPAC to Microsoft Excel for further analysis. I would
present the reports to the Finance Manager for review and approval. I
was assisted by one Assistant Accountant.
vii. I would prepare tax payment schedules such as for Import Taxes, Income
Corporate Tax. I downloaded reports from ACCPAC to Microsoft Excel for

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 further analysis. I would then submit the schedules to the Finance
Manager for review and approval before they are used to pay taxes.

I left Mobil Oil Corporation on 31 December 2002 and joined the Zimbabwe
Revenue Authority(ZIMRA) as a Regional Accountant reporting to the Regional
Manager. I also reported functionally to the Finance Manager at head office.
About 15 staff members were in my section at the regional office and about 25
Accounting staff members at the region’s depots/stations. The Zimbabwe
Revenue Authority(ZIMRA) is a state owned entity responsible for collecting
tax and non-tax revenue on behalf of the Zimbabwean government. It is
responsible for administering Domestic Taxes and Customs & Excise laws on
behalf of the Zimbabwean government. ZIMRA is divided into eight functional
divisions which are as follows Domestic Taxes, Customs & Excise, Investigations
and International Affairs, Finance, Corporate Planning and Modernisation, Loss
Control, Legal and Corporate Services, Human Resources and Administration
and Internal Audit. Both the Domestic Taxes and Customs & Excise divisions
are divided into four geographical regions. Each region is headed by a Regional
Manager who reports to the divisional head. In my day to day work I used
Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Power point,
and the ACCPAC system. My duties were as follows:
Post – Regional Accountant – Zimbabwe Revenue Authority January
2003 to June 2007. My Duties were as follows:
Budgeting and Budgetary Control
I. I would receive budget guidelines to use them in preparing the budget
for the coming year or financial period from the Finance Manager at
head office during the last quarter of the year. The regional budget is
prepared in the fourth quarter of the year preceding the year in
question. The budget guidelines contain assumptions or forecast data on
economic variables such as inflation rate, interest rates, economic
growth rate, current prices of goods and services among others. On
receipt of the budget guidelines I then write to station/area managers
using Email and memorandums giving them the budget guidelines and
asking them to prepare their budgets for the coming year as per the
given guidelines and deadlines. I would report to the Regional Manager

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 on a day to day basis on the progress of stations in preparing the budget.
I would report to the Finance Manager weekly on the progress of the
region in preparing the coming year’s budget.
II. On receipt of the station budgets I check and consolidate the station
budgets into the regional budget using the Zero Based Budgeting
approach in addition to projected economic variables such as inflation,
interest rates, economic growth rates, current prices of goods and
services among others. At the regional office I was helped by two
Accounting Officers who reported to me to check station budgets before
consolidating them into the regional budget. The regional budget is
prepared using Microsoft Excel spread sheets where the expenditure
line items such as Travel and subsistence, courier charges, repairs and
maintenance, office rentals among others are inserted. The other
variables such as the quantities to be used in the coming year, quality,
price per unit would be inserted into the Excel spread sheets before
calculating the subtotals and the grand total.
The budget is divided into three categories, that is Staff Costs,
Operational Costs and the Capital Expenditure budget.

I would use the approved regional plan for the coming year to come up
with quantities and quality of goods and services as well as the timing of
delivery as input data in coming up with the regional budget for the
coming year. The regional budget is submitted to the Regional Manager
for review before submitting it to the divisional head, that is the
Commissioner for the division for review and approval before
submission of the budget to the Director Finance, Corporate Planning
and Modernisation. Later on I will be called by the Finance Manager to
submit the justifications behind the submitted budget in meetings with
the Finance Manager at head office before the consolidation of
divisional budgets into the ZIMRA budget. The ZIMRA budget is prepared
and submitted by head office to the parent Ministry for review and
approval. The parent ministry, that is the Ministry of Finance has the
final say on what amount of budget to approve for ZIMRA during a
financial year.
III. Get the approved budget for the region from the Finance Manager at
head office at the beginning of the year for allocation to all the stations
through official communication such as the email of memorandums.
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IV. Convene budget committee meetings to distribute the budget to the
stations/depots in line with each station’s business requirements and
the available budget. The budget committee meetings were made up of
Station Managers, Accounting Officers and the Regional Manager. The
budget committee will allocate the budget to stations in line with plans
for each station. Some programmes will be dropped, downsized or
modified in line with the approved budget. Two Accounting Officers
would help me determine which amount to allocate to each station in
addition to the justifications submitted by each station. The proposed
budget for each station would be submitted to the regional manager for
review and approval. Two Accounting Officers would help me to capture
the approved station budgets into the SAP system where each station
can utilise them from through making orders and payments in order to
run it’s operations.

V. Produce performance reports for the region used for reviewing actual
performance with respect to the planned targets. The performance
reports are produced at the end of each week with the help of station
managers at each station and the two Accounting Officers at the
regional office. Financial performance data and other statics are
exported from the SAP system into Excel spreadsheets. Financial
performance measures such as ratios, trend analysis and variance
analysis are calculated. Non-financial performance data such as client
satisfaction, client complaints, client waiting time, turnaround time for
bills of entry, training and development programmes for staff. The
performance system used was and is still the Balanced Scorecard
system. Reports are also done using the Balanced Scorecard format,
starting with Financials, Clients, Internal Process, Innovation and
Growth. This is report is done using Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel.
I would submit the reports to the regional manager for review and
approval. I would later present the approved reports in regional and
divisional management meetings where all station managers, the
regional manager and the Commissioner attend. Future operational
strategies are crafted in these meetings.

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 Procurement and Accounts Payable

i. Draw a procurement plan for the region in line with requirements

received from stations/depots. This was done with the help with the
help of one Administration Officer at the regional office and the region’s
seven station managers. Each station would present it’s schedule of
requirements of goods and services at the beginning of each quarter.
The monetary value of the goods is calculated using Excel spreadsheets.
The actual timing of purchase of goods and services will be based on
when the station or region requires them as well as the forecast cash
flow during the period in question. The procurement plan will be
produced in Microsoft Word and Excel before being submitted to the
Regional Manager for review and approval.
ii. Some goods and services will be procured by each station up to an
approved monetary value limit, while those above this limit will
procured at the regional office up to a predetermined limit. Those goods
and services whose value is above the regional limit will be procured by
the Administration Manager and Finance Manager both that are based
at head office.
iii. At the regional office I would be helped by one Administration Officer
and Two Administration Assistants to procure/purchase goods and
services. The process starts with the section receiving a purchase
requisition for specified goods and services with the value indicated on
the requisition. The requisition will be submitted to the Accounting
Officer responsible for budgets for him/her to indicate whether or not
the item was budgeted for and whether the funds are still available.
iv. When the availability of funds is confirmed the Administration Officer,
assisted by two Administration Assistants will source for at least three
quotations from suppliers of the goods and services in question after
which a procurement meeting would be convened to deliberate on the
issue. The procurement committee is made of up representatives of all
sections at the region at supervisory and management level. The
supplier with the lowest price to predetermined specifications for goods
and services is usually chosen. The procurement meeting minutes are
signed by all those present before being submitted to me for review
and/or recommendation for the regional manager’s approval. After
being satisfied that procurement procedures have been followed and

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 that we are buying to best advantage of ZIMRA I would recommend by
signing the minutes before submitting them to the Regional Manager for
review and/or approval. The Regional Manager would approve the
minutes after being satisfied that procedures have been followed and
the purchase satisfies value for money principles.
v. On receiving the approved minutes from the Regional Manager I would
instruct the Administration Officer to cause creation of a purchase order
by an Administration Assistant in the SAP system. The purchase order
would move through the SAP workflow from the Administration
Assistant who created it to the Administration Officer who would use the
approved procurement minutes to pass it before it moves into my
workflow in SAP. I would use the approved procurement minutes to
approve the purchase order. After I approve the purchase order, I would
also print it and pass it on to the Administration Officer to go and
purchase the goods and services with the help of Administration
Assistants.
vi. The goods are delivered either at stores or at the user section
representative’s officer where the specifications of the goods stated on
the official order are checked before the goods are accepted into stores
or by the user section and the delivery notes signed.
vii. The signed delivery note and invoice are passed on to the Administration
Assistant responsible for initiating the payments. The Administration
Assistant would initiate payment a week before the due date by putting
together the payment instruction, invoice, signed delivery note,
purchase order before passing it to the Administration Officer who
recommends payment if all documentation is in place and passes it on to
me for approval. If all the above documents are attached I would
approve the payment before passing it on to the Accounting Officer
responsible for Budgets and Payments for payment processing.
viii. The Accounting Officer would give the documents to the Accounting
Clerk responsible for creating payment documents in SAP. The SAP
documents would move through workflow to the Accounting Officer’s
SAP inbox. The Accounting Officer would check each SAP payment
document against the physical documents before passing the
transactions which would be scheduled to be part of the payment list
and payment run. After the payment run printed cheques would be
attached to the physical documents before they are given to me as one

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 of the two signatories responsible for signing payment cheques. If the
attached documents show that all procurement procedures have been
followed I would then proceed to sign the cheques before the other
signatories, which include the regional manager and all other sectional
managers, sign also. The signed cheques would be passed to the
Accounting Assistant responsible for despatching the cheques who
would assign an Office Orderly to deliver the signed cheques to the
respective suppliers.
viii. Preparing of analysis reports by the Accounting Officer responsible for
supplier accounts reconciliations and the Administration. I would receive
the reports before reviewing and approving the reports. The reports
include monthly analytical reports such as creditors’ reconciliations,
vendor accounts analysis, general ledger accounts for payments among
others. I would hold meetings with the Accounting Officer and the
Administration Officer in order to find ways to take corrective action
where errors and open items are identified.

Management Accounting

I. Ensure stock purchases are captured into the SAP system by the
Administration Assistant responsible for stock management. This is done
after the goods have been delivered and accepted by ZIMRA. The
documents are checked by the Administration Officer before posting
them into the SAP system.
II. Establishing the cost of providing specific services in the SAP system
through monthly reports prepared by the Accounting Officer responsible
for budgets and payments processing. The Accounting Officer would use
the information on activity costs from the SAP system to prepare the
reports in Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Word. I would check and review
the reports before presenting them to the Regional Manager and the
rest of management.
III. Establishing and calculating the value for money for the region’s revenue
collections monthly. This is done through monthly reports prepared by
the Accounting Officer responsible for Budgets and Payments and the
Accounting Officer responsible for Revenue Accounting. They would use
SAP system data and export it into Excel for further sorting of the data.
The reports would be presented to me for review and approval before I

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 present them to the Regional Manager and the rest of management in
regional management meetings.
IV. I would review and approve management reports which include
Statement of Comprehensive Income, Statement of Financial Position,
Statement of Cash flow, Profitability/Margin Analysis, Variance Analysis.
The reports are prepared by the Accounting Officer responsible for
Budgets and Payments and the one for Revenue Accounting. The
Accounting Officers would down load data from the SAP system before I
receive the reports, review them for accuracy and whether they truly
reflected the business conditions on the ground. I would present the
reports to the Regional Manager and the rest of management in regional
management meetings. I would also recommend possible strategies of
enhancing tax and non tax revenue or controlling costs.

Financial Accounting

i. I would supervise the two Accounting Officers responsible for

posting(or retrieve) transactions from the sub-ledgers such as the
cash book, creditors, debtors, fixed assets among others to the
General Ledger. I check whether this has been done by logging
into the SAP system to view reports that track the posting of
transactions from the sub-ledgers to the General Ledger.
ii. I review and approve analytical reports for each sub-ledger and
for the General Ledger accounts such as bank reconciliations,
accounts analysis, reconciliation of General Ledger accounts and
their respective sub-ledger transaction listings among others. The
reports are prepared by the two Accounting Officers who submit
them to me for review and approval. The source data is down
loaded from SAP and exported into Excel for further sorting.
iii. I use the reports to detect transaction misposts and approve
correcting journals By Accounting and Administration staff. Other
correcting journals are created by the section responsible for
passing the incorrect journal. I would formally communicate the
request to section manager or supervisor for the section to create
and pass the correcting journals.

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iv. A day after the end of each month I print the Trial Balance from
the SAP system to check for any abnormal trends in the figures. I
would instruct responsible staff in Administration and Finance to
create the corrective journals before I pass them.
v. I supervise the preparation of periodic financial statements in line
with the requirements of the government(or the Board of
Directors) and statutory requirements. These include the
Statement of Comprehensive Income, Statement of Financial
Position, Statement of Cash Flows which are prepared by the
Accounting Officer responsible for Budgets and payments, and
Revenue Reports to the Ministry of Finance which are prepared by
the Accounting Officer responsible for Revenue Accounting. The
source data is down loaded from the SAP system into Excel for
further sorting. These would be given to me for reviewing before I
approve them. I would then present the reports to the Regional
Manager and the rest of management in regional management
meetings.

Stock Management and Control

i. The section was managed by an Administration Assistant

reporting to the Administration Officer who reported to me. The
Administration Assistant would propose the purchase of stocks in
line with reorder levels, submit it to the Administration Officer for
checking on whether the request is in line with reorder levels. The
checked request would be submitted to me for review and
approval before the procurement process begins. I would pass the
approved request to the Administration Assistant responsible for
procurement to buy the goods.
ii. The purchased stock is delivered at the warehouse and checked
by the Administration Assistant before being accepted into stores.
The Administration Assistant would check the quantity and quality
of the goods and accept them into the warehouse and then
receipt or uploading of the stock into the SAP system.
iii. The Administration Assistant captures the invoice cost of stock
into the SAP system. The document moves through the SAP
workflow system to the Administration Officer who checks before
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 the document moves through the SAP system to me. I would then
review and approve the calculated cost of the stock items using
the stock valuation module in the SAP system.
iv. Sections requiring goods from stores would send approved
requests to the Administration Assistant through the SAP system.
The Administration Assistant would create the issuing SAP
document which moves to the Administration Officer for checking.
The checked document would then move to my SAP inbox for me
to review of the stock issues and approve them if there is nothing
abnormal. The document moves back to the Administration
Assistant for the delivery of the goods to the requesting section.
v. Supervise stock counts quarterly and capture the data into the
SAP system. The stock counts are supervised by staff not involved
in the physical custody. I would be responsible for allocating the
counting staff to individual warehouses. The counting staff would
print the report showing stock in SAP, then use the material
classes to count them in their specific shelves. The physical stock
will be captured into SAP by the counting staff and submit the
physical counting sheets to the Administration Officer who would
use it to print the stock variance report from SAP. The Officer
would use the variance report to investigate the individual cases
with guidance from me.
vi. I would instruct the Administration Officer to take specific
corrective action after investigating the causes of stock variances.
Where the cause of the variances is negligence or theft of stock by
staff the corrective action would include taking disciplinary action
on the responsible staff members.

Fleet and Asset Management.

i. Prepare and submit proposed budgets for vehicles and other

assets to the head office after consultations with stations with the
assistance of the Administration Officer and two Administration
Assistants based at the regional office. The Administration officer
at the regional office would receive the list and number of assets
required by each station. The Administration Officer would be

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 assisted by two Administration Assistants to consolidate the
station budgets into a regional budget. The regional budget would
contain the following information: asset type, quantity required,
unit price, subtotal cost of asset type, the total cost of all the
assets and the justifications for each asset type.
ii. The Administration Officer would submit the budget to me for
review and/or amendments before I submit the budget to the
Regional Manager for review and approval before it is submitted
to the Divisional Head who submits to the Finance Director.
iii. I would attend meetings at head office chaired by the Finance
Director and assisted by the Finance Manager, together with the
Regional Manager, in order to discuss the region’s budget
submission and the justifications thereof.
iv. The region’s budget is incorporated into the organisational budget
by the Finance Manager at head office before the budget is
submitted to the Ministry of Finance through the Chief Executive
Officer. The approved budget is communicated to the Finance
Manager before it is allocated to regions
v. I would attend procurement meetings at head office chaired by
the Procurement Manager to facilitate the purchase of the assets
for the region.
vi. Convene meetings with regional management in order to
rationalise the budget for each station after receiving the
approved budget which is usually lower than what would have
been requested. The meeting would allocate the assets and
vehicles to stations or sections in line with the level of business
carried by each station or section.
vii. I would supervise the management and maintenance of vehicles,
buildings and other assets including security, transfer, revaluation,
and disposal. This is done through receiving monthly asset status
reports from each station manager. This is done with the
assistance of the one Administration Officer and two
Administration Assistants.
viii. I would supervise asset counts(or inspections) at all stations being
assisted by the Administration Officer and two Administration
Assistants at the regional office and five other Administration
Assistants each one based at each station in the region.

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In July 2007 I was promoted from the position of Regional Accountant to a
higher position of Head Management Accounting after competitive
interviews. I am based at ZIMRA’s head office in Harare. I report to the
Director Finance, Corporate Planning and Modernisation. I have eight staff
members in my department at head office and with five Regional
Accountants reporting to me.

Post – Head Management Accounting – ZIMRA July 2007 to date.

Project Appraisals and Reviews

i. I recommend suitable business models for ZIMRA’s subsidiary which is in
the business of providing Training and Accommodation facilities at a
profit to ZIMRA and any other customers. The subsidiary lost it’s main
assets, which is the hotel buildings and assets, to another government
department at the instruction of government. This brought the
operations of the subsidiary to a halt. The first step was to look at other
options of resuscitating the subsidiary’s operations. A quick win was to
look at services that the subsidiary could provide to the parent ZIMRA.
One area was for the subsidiary to provide cleaning and security services
to ZIMRA as well as lease some ZIMRA immovable properties and use
them for the provision of Training and Accommodation facilities. I
receive information from the Administration Department on cleaning
services and their costs, security services and their costs in order to
estimate the potential revenue to the subsidiary will get if it takes on the
projects. I also get information from cleaning and security companies on
their operating costs in order to forecast the profit at different scales of
operation. All the other information such as operational requirements
such as capital to buy assets and for working capital purposes. The
information is analysed using the Microsoft Excel spread sheets while
the report evaluating the analysed information together with the
recommends is done through Microsoft Word. I therefore recommend
the strategies that should be adopted and submit the document to the
Director for Finance, Corporate Planning and Modernisation for review
and approval.
ii. I recommend, after looking at optional financial models, suitable
financing structures for suppliers’ lines of credit. I get information on the

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 financing structures from the different suppliers before an evaluation of
all of them is done in order to select the best option. The evaluation
involves calculating the cost of each facility using the principal amount,
interest costs and any other costs. The information is analysed using
Microsoft Excel while the report with recommendations is done in
Microsoft Word. A recommendation of adopting suitable options as is or
adopting them on condition that the supplier improves certain
conditions which may not be favourable. The recommendation is
submitted to the Director Finance, Corporate Planning and
Modernisation for review and approval. On approval of the
recommended options I am usually asked to lead the team that will
negotiate with the selected suppliers for the best value to ZIMRA before
an agreement can be drafted. The team is usually made of
representatives of the division to receive the goods and services, and
representation from Legal and Corporate Services. Once the major
conditions of the transactions are agreed on then contract negotiations
begin with a draft agreement being prepared by our Legal and Corporate
Services. The team uses the position and requirements of ZIMRA on the
matter to negotiate for the best conditions from the supplier. I give
feedback to the Director of Finance, Corporate Planning and
Modernisation, the head of division to receive goods and services and
the Chief Executive Officer or Commissioner General on the progress of
the negotiations and get guidance on the same until an agreement on
the contents of the contract is done and the contract is signed.
iii. I recommend, after financial modelling, suitable financing structures for
big projects such as construction of ZIMRA head office. I get information
on the financing structures from the different banks before an
evaluation of all of them is done in order to choose the best option. The
evaluation involves calculating the cost of each loan facility using the
principal amount, interest costs and any other costs. The financial
modelling is done through Excel spread sheets while the report with
recommendations is done using Microsoft Word. A recommendation of
adopting the identified suitable options as is or adopting them on
condition that the bank improves certain conditions which may not be
favourable. The recommendation is submitted to the Director Finance,
Corporate for review and/or approval. On approval of the recommended
options I am usually asked to lead the team that will negotiate with the
selected banks for the best value to ZIMRA before an agreement can be
drafted. The team is usually made of representatives of the division to
receive the goods and services to be bought by the loans to be raised,

17
 and representation from Legal and Corporate Services. Once the major
conditions of the loans are agreed on, then contract negotiations begin
with a draft agreement being prepared by our Legal and Corporate
Services. The teams uses the position and requirements of ZIMRA on the
matter to negotiate for the best conditions from the bank. I give
feedback to the Director of Finance, Corporate Planning and
Modernisation, the head of division to receive goods and services to be
bought by the raised loans and the Chief Executive Officer or
Commissioner General on the progress of the negotiations and get
guidance on the same until an agreement on the contents of the
contract is done and the contract is signed.
iv. I do appraisal of projects before and post implementation to evaluate
value for money and return on investment for example evaluation of the
scanners project and ICT systems. I evaluate the cost of purchasing
critical operational equipment and systems compared to the revenue to
be generated from the project. For example operational equipment such
as non-intrusive scanning machines for scanning imports and exports
and Invoice Management System for storing and analysis of clients’
trading transactions. Information on the cost of acquisition of the
equipment and systems, cost of running and maintaining the equipment
and the systems in obtained from the potential suppliers and estimated
revenue to be collected from the Operations divisions. I also get
information from Accounting staff and the Administration department.
The data is analysed using Excel spread sheets and Microsoft Word. I am
also assisted by the Accountant for Budgets and Investments to gather
the information to be used to do the evaluation. The above information
is then used to make recommendations on whether to buy the
equipment and systems or not to buy. I then submit the document with
recommendations to the Director of Finance, Corporate Planning and
Modernisation for review and approval.

v. I am part of a team that negotiates with banks for suitable financing

structures for projects such as the Staff Car Loan Scheme, Staff Housing
Loan Scheme. I work with a team made up of representatives from
Human Resources and Administration, Legal and Corporate Services and
myself from Finance, Corporate Planning and Modernisation together
with the Accountant for Budgets and Investments who assists me. The
team then comes up with the specifications for staff loans financing
facilities and approaches banks with proposals for them to come up with
loan schemes to financing purchase of residential houses and vehicles by

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 ZIMRA staff. After receiving the proposed loan facilities with it’s
conditions from each bank, an evaluation is done that will rank each
facility in a way that recognises to what extent each one meets the
predetermined specifications. Analysis of data is done through Excel
spread sheets while evaluation reports are done using Microsoft Word.
After the evaluation of all the proposed facilities is completed the
document is submitted to the Directors of Human Resources and
Administration as well as the Director for Finance, Corporate Planning
and Modernisation for review and approval. Once the recommendations
are approved then I am usually asked to lead the team that will
negotiate with the selected banks for the best value to ZIMRA before an
agreement can be drafted. The team is usually made of representatives
from Finance, Corporate Planning and Modernisation, Human Resources
and Administration and Legal & Corporate Services. Once the major
conditions of the loans are agreed on, then contract negotiations begin
with a draft agreement being prepared by our Legal and Corporate
Services. The team uses specifications of ZIMRA on the matter to
negotiate for the best conditions from the bank. Feedback is given to the
Directors of Human Resources and Administration, the Director of
Finance, Corporate Planning and Modernisation, and the Chief Executive
Officer or Commissioner General on the progress of the negotiations and
get guidance on the same until an agreement on the contents of the
contract is done and the contract is signed.

vi. Advise on suitable terms including payment terms to be used when

drawing contracts with suppliers or contractors. The Administration
department is responsible for the procurement of goods and services for
ZIMRA. A division or department which requires goods and services will
submit a purchase requisition to the Procurement Department. The
Procurement Department then triggers the process of selecting the
suitable supplier. Once the service provider is selected, a team made up
of representatives from Administration, Finance, Legal and Corporate
Services and the department that requested the goods and services
comes up with the specifications of the goods and services before
negotiations with the selected supplier commence. I am usually part of
this team or I am represented by the Accountant for Budgets and
Investments. The team uses the specifications of the goods and services
as well as favourable trading terms to ZIMRA to negotiate for the best
conditions from the supplier. Analysis of data is done using Excel while
evaluation reports are done using Microsoft Word. Once agreement is
struck with the supplier by my team then the team recommends that
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 the contract be signed before delivery of goods and services
commences.

Budgeting and Budgetary Control

i. I prepare and submit budget guidelines to the Director for approval at
the beginning of the budgeting period. I am assisted by the Accountant
for Budgets and Investments who reports to me to gather information
on budget guidelines which contain the time table to be adhered to by
divisions as they prepare their budgets, assumptions or forecast data on
economic variables such as inflation rate, interest rates, economic
growth rate, gross domestic product, industrial capacity utilisation,
current prices of goods and services among others. After completion of
the document I submit it to the Director Finance, Corporate Planning
and Modernisation for review and approval before it circulated to all
divisions for them to start preparing their budgets for the next coming
financial year. This is usually done during the third and part of the fourth
quarter of the year preceding the financial year being budgeted for.
ii. I co-ordinate preparation of all divisional budgets before consolidating
them into the organizational budget. This is done through receiving
updates on the progress of regions and divisions in preparing their
budgets from Regional Accountants after every three days. I am also
helped by the Accountant for Budgets and Investments in coordinating
the budgeting process and communicating with Regional Accountants.
iii. I review proposed annual budgets by regions and divisions before
incorporating them into the proposed annual organizational budget. I do
this with the assistance of the Accountant for Budget and Investments.
The process involves checking accuracy of the calculations, the
assumptions made by a division with respect to the level or scale of
operation and the reasonability of the amounts. The budget is now
incorporated into the corporate budget with the assistance of the
Accountant.
iv. After all proposed budgets by divisions have been incorporated into the
organizational budget the next process is review. The review involves
checking whether the corporate budget has captured all the strategies in
the organisation’s strategic plan and submissions by all the regions. The
checking involves accuracy in additions and whether all the
organisation’s plans are captured. After that the budget is presented to
the Director Finance, Corporate Planning & Modernisation for review
and/or approval. The Director presents the reviewed budget to
Executive Management and the Chief Executive Officer for review and

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 approval. The reviewed budget is presented by the Director to the Board
of Directors for further review and approval.
v. I am part of the team that supports the Director in meetings with the
Ministry of Finance to present oral justifications of the proposed
Authority’s budget. The team is made up of representatives from the
Human Resources and Administration division, ICT and Infrastructure
and Finance, Corporate Planning and Modernisation. Each division
focuses on the part of the budget that it controls, for example ICT and
Infrastructure focuses on justifying the ICT budget as well as the budget
for construction of office and residential staff accommodation.
vi. Whenever issues that were not budgeted for and yet they are critical, I
recommend to the Director that engagement with the Ministry be done
for approval of additional funding. For example this has occurred where
the Workers’ Union demands salary increments that are higher than
what was budgeted for. I am part of the team that meets with the
Ministry in order to present oral justifications of the additional budget to
the Ministry. The justifications revolve around how such kind of
expenditure may be difficult to postpone to the Ministry.
vii. I recommend the allocation of budgets to all divisions monthly in line
with the approved cash flow and concurrence of the Director and
Executive management. This is done with the assistance of the
Accountant for Budgets and Investments. The allocation is done after
receipt of funding from the Ministry of Finance at the beginning of each
month. The amount of funding to be allocated to a division is in line with
the division’s plan within the particular month. Divisions will be asked to
prioritise their activities in the case where funding is not enough for all
the planned activities. The proposed allocation is presented to the
Director Finance, Corporate and Modernisation for review and approval
before he presents the proposed allocations to Executive Management
for review and approval.
viii. I receive and approve requests from divisions for virements from one
expenditure line item to another expenditure line item. Requests are
received either through signed memorandums or through emails. Before
approving the virement I check in the SAP system whether the funds are
available in other expenditure line items. If the funds are available in
another line item then I approve the virement. This is usually effected in
SAP system by the Accountant for Budgets and Investments or myself.
ix. I receive proposals for increase of regional cash float limits from
Regional Accountants and approve or review on advice from the
Accountant for Budgets and Investments. The requests are in the form

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 of signed memorandums with justifications behind the increase. Once I
am satisfied by the justifications I then approve the increase and give the
approved document to Accountant for Payables and Creditors to
transfer the funds to the particular region.
x. I receive proposals from regions to fund identified projects such as
revenue nets or to address emergencies such as repairs of buildings
damaged by fire or rain. The memorandums are signed by the Regional
Manager of the Divisional Head and they include the justifications
behind the request. I discuss the issue with the Accountant for Budgets
and Investments before recommending virementing funds from other
divisions which have savings or requesting additional funding from the
Ministry. The recommended action is submitted to the Director for
review and approval.

Accounts Payable and Payments Processing

i. I supervise the Accounts Payable and Payment Processing at head office

and in all the geographical regions. The Accounts Payable section at
head office is headed by the Accountant for Accounts Payable and
Creditors who is assisted by an one Accounting Officer and four
Accounting Assistants who report to the Accountant for Accountant for
Accounts Payable and Creditors. The Accounting Assistant receives
payment documents from the Administration department. The
Accounting Assistant records receipt of the payment documents in a
register. The Accounting Assistant then goes into the SAP system to do
invoice verification using the Purchase Order and Goods Receipt
Voucher already in the SAP system thus creating payment documents.
The SAP documents would move through workflow to the Accounting
Officer’s SAP inbox. The Accounting Officer would check each SAP
payment document against the physical documents before passing the
transactions which would be scheduled to be part of the payment list.
The payment list moves into the inbox of the Accountant for Accounts
Payable and Creditors for him to schedule the payment run.
ii. After the payment run printed cheques, and bank transfer instructions
would be attached to the physical payment documents before they are
given to me as one of the two signatories responsible for signing
payment cheques or instructions. If the attached documents show that

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 all procurement procedures have been followed I would then proceed to
sign the cheques or payment instructions before the other signatories,
which include Accountants and other managers and all other sectional
managers, sign also. The signed cheques or payment instructions would
be passed to the Accounting Assistant responsible for despatching the
cheques to the Administration Department which would assign an Office
Orderly or a Driver to deliver the signed cheques to the respective
suppliers.
iii. I check and review analysis reports by the Accounting Officer responsible
for supplier accounts reconciliations and those prepared by the
Accountant for Accounts Payable and Creditors. The reports include
monthly analytical reports such as creditors’ reconciliations, down
payments, vendor accounts analysis, general ledger accounts for
payments among others. I would hold meetings with the Accounting
Officer and the Accountant for Accounts Payable and Creditors in order
to find ways to take corrective action where errors and open items are
identified.
iv. I ensure all transactions, that is receipt of funds, payments, and
investments are captured and processed in the system. I am assisted by
the Accountant for Accounts Payable and Creditors, one Accounting
Officer and four Accounting Assistants. This is done by verifying whether
transactions on the payment run are in the SAP system. This is done
logging onto the system and check whether the transaction appears on
the vendor’s account into the SAP system.

Treasury and Working Capital Management

i. I review cash flow forecasts for the organization(in line with the
corporate plan and approved budget) prepared by the Accountant
responsible for Budgets and Investments. I check for the accuracy of the
forecasts especially on whether all the planned activities by divisions has
been incorporated into the cash flow forecasts. The data is analysed
using Microsoft Excel while the evaluation and justifications is done
using Microsoft Word. The cash flow forecast together with the
justifications are presented to the Director Finance, Corporate Planning
& Modernisation for review and approval. The approved document is

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 submitted to the Ministry of Finance for approval with or without
amendments.
ii. I am part of the team that hold meetings with the Ministry of Finance to
present oral justifications behind the cash flow forecast. The team is
made of the Director Finance, Corporate Planning and Modernisation,
the Accountant for Budgets and Investments and myself. This is done in
order to ensure the Ministry approves the proposed monthly releases of
funds that are in line with the Authority’s planned monthly activities and
programmes. The Ministry approves the cash flow forecast with or
without amendments.
iii. If Ministry releases funds for operations that are lower than the
requested amount then I have to rationalise the released funds amongst
all the divisions prioritising those with the highest impact on the
organisation’s strategy implementation. This scenario analyses is done in
Microsoft Excel. I check the document for accuracy and on whether the
prioritisation of activities and programmes is in line with the stated
strategic objectives. The document is submitted to the Director Finance,
Corporate Planning and Modernisation for approval with or without
amendments. The approved budget allocations are then distributed to
all divisions by uploading them into the SAP system. I am assisted by the
Accountant for Budgets and Investments in uploading the budgets into
the SAP system.
iv. I monitor the level of available cash when compared to the cash
requirements of the Authority daily and weekly in order to ensure the
organisation does not run out of cash. Every morning I receive bank
statements from the Authority’s bankers and information on impending
payments from the Administration Department. This information is used
to assess the adequacy or otherwise of the Authority’s cash and cash
equivalents to meet it’s day to day expenses. I am assisted by the
Accountant for Budgets and Investments. If unforeseen issues arise that
require cash payments these will be presented to the Director with
recommendations either for virements or seeking additional funding
from the Ministry in the case of emergencies. The analysis of data is
done in Microsoft Excel while the report with recommendations is done
in Microsoft Word.
v. I review the financial and fundamental analysis and evaluation of all
banks that is done every six months in order to determine which banks
are suitable and which ones are no longer suitable to handle the
Authority’s business. I am assisted by the Accountant for Budgets and
Investments in performing the evaluation of the banks. The analyses

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 begins with me receiving the audited financial statements from all the
banks in the country that are used in the analysis of each bank. Other
information on market intelligence is also gathered and used in the
evaluation of each bank. The issues that are considered include
Corporate Governance, Quality of Management practices, Profitability,
Cash flow developments, Capital Adequacy, among other pertinent
issues. The evaluation report is done using Microsoft Word with
recommendations on which banks to continue doing business with and
which ones to stop doing business with. If a bank’s future financial
prospects are in doubt then we usually recommend that we stop doing
business with the particular bank. The document which contain the
evaluation with recommendations is submitted to the Director Finance,
Corporate Planning & Modernisation for review and recommending the
document to the Chief Executive Officer for approval with or without
amendments.
vi. I receive recommendations from the Accountant to invest cash onto the
money market that is excess to the day to day cash requirements. I
recommend the investments with approved financial institutions if they
are in line with the Investment Policy. The recommendations are
prepared in Microsoft Word and printed for signing by the Accountant
for Budgets and Investments, myself and approval by the Director
Finance, Corporate Planning and Modernisation.
vii. I approve rollover or termination of an investment with an approved
investment house on receipt of a recommendation from the Accountant
for Budgets and Investments. The recommendation should be in line
with the Investments Policy which places investment limits on the bank.
viii. After every six months I receive a report on how much has been earned
as interest from investment activities. I also receive recommendations
from the Accountant for Budgets and Investments to allocate a given
amount of interest income towards staff loan schemes such as housing
loans and personal loans. I submit the recommendations to the
Directors of Human Resources and Finance, Corporate Planning and
Modernisation for approval.

Internal Controls

i. After every six months I perform a review of the policies and procedures
under the control of the division. The review involves scanning the

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 environment as well as the objectives of the organisation to determine
whether or not the policies and procedures are still relevant given the
current environment. The policies and procedures under the control of
the division include Travelling and subsistence policy and rates, Accounts
Payable, Treasury and Cash flow management, Investments, telephone
allowance rates, procedures on approval of payments, signing of
cheques or payment instructions, Investments Policy among others.
Where a review of a policy or procedures is required I ask the section
head to do the review. The section head will be responsible for
researching the current trends in the market. The information gathered
is presented is used to analyse and evaluate it in order to determine
where changes are required. The information is then used to come up
with a revised draft procedure which is presented to me in a brain
storming session. This is used to polish the document. The agreed draft
document is printed and signed by the preparer and given to me for
recommendation to the Director for review and recommendation to the
Chief Executive Officer for approval in the case of procedures and in the
case of policy the recommended document is submitted to the Board of
Directors for review with or without amendments.
ii. At the beginning of the year I sit down with section leaders in order to
list the risks that each faces in it’s day to day activities. There are two
section managers who report to me, that is the Accountant for Accounts
Payable and Creditors and the Accountant for Budgets and Investments.
These section leaders assist me in describing the risk and it’s extent. We
also set the acceptable risk levels and the risk mitigation strategies to be
implemented in order to control the risk. After the end of each month,
each section manager prepares a report on the levels of risk experienced
during the month. Where risk levels have been reported to be above the
desired levels corrective action is taken. This can take the form of
tightening existing procedures and controls, training staff, promote
collaboration and team work including disciplining staff who have been
proven to be deliberately overlooking existing procedures.
iii. The reviews of the performance of each section in controlling risks
results in the flagging of areas where improvements are needed in terms
of reconfiguring systems and processes. This information is used to draw
the plan to manage the risk and implement the initiatives in order to
control risk. The success or otherwise of the implemented initiatives is
evaluated at the end of each month through risk reports.
iv. I prepare for External audits through creating audit schedules. I am
assisted by the two section managers and their subordinates. The first

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 step is to understand what the auditor wants through a letter from the
same or through a face to face meeting with the auditors. The
information is obtained from the SAP system by printing reports with
information requested by the auditors such as management accounts,
the list of payments done in a year, prepayments, accounts receivables,
accounts analyses, bank reconciliations, vendor accounts reconciliations.
These reports are prepared by the responsible Accounting Assistant or
Accounting Officer, then checked by the Accountant for the section and
then it is brought to me for approval. I then proceed to submit the
reports to the External Auditors who go through them before the
Entrance Meeting which facilitates the commencement of the audit
exercise. During the audit exercise the auditors communicate daily with
the section Accountants. Where issues have arisen that the Accountants
cannot resolve with the auditors, then the issues are brought to me by
the responsible Accountant. I discuss the issue with the Accountant
before I call in the External Auditor handling the issue for a meeting to
resolve the issue. If the issue remains unresolved then a meeting
between me and my team will be held with External Audit Manager and
his/her team to resolve the issue. Meetings are also held with the
auditors to discuss their observations and their recommendations on the
observed issues. The agreed recommendations by auditors will be
implemented per agreed timeframe.
v. I also prepare for Internal Audit exercises in the same manner as with
the external audit exercise and being assisted by the two Accountants
who report to me and their subordinates.

Management Reports
i. I would review and approve management reports which include
Statement of Comprehensive Income, Statement of Financial Position,
Statement of Cash flow, Profitability/Margin Analysis, Variance Analysis.
The reports are prepared by either the Accountant responsible for
Budgets and Investments or the Accountant for Accountant for Accounts
Payable and Creditors. The Accountants would down load data from the
SAP system to Excel before I receive the reports, review them for
accuracy and whether they truly reflected the business conditions on the
ground. I would present the reports to the Director Finance, Corporate
Planning and Modernisation before circulating the reports to senior
managements.

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 ii. Supervise the preparation of divisional weekly, monthly, quarterly and
annual reports by the two Accountants using data from SAP and
analysed in Excel. I receive and review the reports before submission of
same to the Director.
iii. I carry out ratio analysis on financial statements monthly and take
corrective measures where an undesirable trend has been detected. I
use the financial statements in Excel and calculate the ratios before
presenting the reports to the Director for review and distribution to
senior management.
iv. I carry out variance analysis on performance targets in Excel. Each
variance is investigated in order to find the reasons behind it.
Recommendations on corrective measures are submitted to the Director
for review and circulation to senior management.

Financial Accounting Duties

In addition to Management Accounting Duties I performed the following
Financial Accounting duties in 2009 and 2010 when the position of Head
Financial Accounting fell vacant.

i. I supervised staff in the department to ensure the following is done.

ii. I would ensure the General Ledger is maintained with an up to date
Chart of Accounts. I would approve requests from Accountants to create
new General Ledger accounts and give the approved request to the
General Ledger Accountant to create the accounts in the SAP system.
iii. I ensured the General Ledger Accountant would post or retrieve
transactions from the sub-ledgers such as the cash book, creditors,
debtors, fixed assets among others to the General Ledger in the SAP
system.
iv. I supervised the preparation of monthly analytical reports for each sub-
ledger and for the General Ledger accounts by Accountants. I would
receive the reports from the Accountants together with
recommendations on any issues identified for review and approval.
v. I authorised correcting journals for misposts or errors and generate
submitted by any of the four Accountants before they are posted by the
Accountants into the SAP system.

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vi. I reviewed and approved periodic financial statements in line with the
requirements of the shareholders(or the Board) and statutory
requirements. These include the Statement of Comprehensive Income,
Statement of Financial Position, Statement of Cash Flows among others.
These reports are downloaded from SAP to Microsoft Excel for further
analysis by the General Ledger Accountant. I would submit the reports
to the Director Finance, Corporate Planning and Modernisation for
review and approval before circulating them to senior management and
the Board.

Internal Control Systems and Strategic Management

i. I am involved in the strategic planning processes for the division and the
entire organisation until a strategic plan for the organisation has been
produced. The first step is to request staff to contribute and make
suggestions towards the operations and strategies of their section, the
department, the division and the entire organisation. This information is
used to draw the strategic plans of each section and for the division. The
staff members are also involved in the exercise of coming up with the
divisional plan. Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Word and Microsoft
Powerpoint are used to come up with the divisional plan. The draft
divisional plan is presented to the Director Finance, Corporate Planning,
and Modernisation for review. The Director would invite the three
sectional heads including myself to discuss the draft divisional plan. The
result of this meeting will be a draft divisional strategic plan that we
then present at a corporate strategic planning conference where all
divisional heads and senior managers including myself attend as well as
the Chief Executive Office(called Commissioner General in ZIMRA). The
conference will interrogate and ask questions on the divisional strategic
plan during it’s presentation. The divisional plan will be adopted with or
without amendments. The plan will be incorporated into the
organisation’s strategic plan before the draft strategic plan is submitted
to the Board of Directors for review and recommendation for adoption
by the Ministry of Finance. The Ministry reviews the plan and approves
with or without amendments.
ii. The next stage after approval of the strategic plan by the Ministry is
implementation. This starts by senior and executive management listing
down the strategies to be implemented in a particular year. Each
division will then draw it’s plan for the year from the strategies listed

29
 above. I am involved with the other sectional heads and the Director in
drawing the divisional plan for the year. The annual plan is presented to
staff in meetings where they are allowed to ask questions about the
plan.
iii. I use the approved divisional plan to formulate operational plans for my
sections together with the sectional heads and their subordinates.
iv. I am attend and am involved in the quarterly strategic review
conferences for organisation where the progress of implementing the
plan by each division is reviewed against the targets. The review may
result in the amendment of the original plan where there is merit or
corrective action being taken to align the performance to the plan.
v. I prepare complimentary plans such as Business Continuity Plans(BCP)
Integrity actin plans, Accounts Payable Procedures. This is done with the
assistance of the two sectional managers and their staff. Performance is
measured monthly and quarterly.

Conclusion

My extensive experience at Mobil Oil Corporation and Zimbabwe Revenue

Authority covers a wide range of Management Accounting and Financial
Accounting activities. I have been able to accumulate experience over the
years in costing and cost management, budgeting and budgetary control,
management reporting, procurement and accounts payable, treasury and
cash flow management, stock management and control, project appraisal,
financial accounting, relationship management, fleet and asset
management among others. In addition experience has been gained in
other general management activities such as strategic planning, human
resources management among others.

The above outline of areas of experience show that I have learned many
Finance and Accounting concepts and the practical experience with respect
to these concepts. I have used the knowledge and experience in my
previous and continue to use this in my current job. I believe with full CIMA
membership I would gain a huge impetus in furthering my career as a
management accountant. I therefore apply that I be accepted as a member
of CIMA.

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While a lot of effort has been invested in covering the experience I
accumulated over the years in as much detail as possible, certain areas may
not have been covered in so much detail. Therefore should you require
additional information in certain areas of my work experience please kindly
contact me on the following contact details:

EMAIL: patrickmwash@gmail.com or pmwashita@zimra.co.zw

Tel: +263-4-251782 Cell: +263-0712 617 675

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