The Auditor-General’s Office is formally engaged in executing the sterling job of auditing and exposing rot, misappropriation of funds, and corruption in public entities, but there is little or no commensurate action applied to address, and/or compliment such efforts for the good of the nation.
By Sparkleford Masiyambiri
The recent revelations by the Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PPAC), chaired by Paurina Mpariwa, are amazing and nerve-tinkling. It is surprising to note that Parliament receives such crucial information from the Auditor-General, Mildred Chiri, regularly, and it opts to ignore criminality at the expense of the whole nation.
Ideally, the Auditor-General’s Office reinforces government operations by identifying grey areas that need attention and concentration.
If public funds are misused or misdirected, certainly, Parliament has a legal obligation to work hard by complimenting the Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa, who is spending sleepless nights hunting for cash to keep the nation going, by plugging all perforations as well as ensuring that available funds are put to good use.
The strategy is simple here, once the Auditor-General exposes rotten apples in the basket in her reports to Parliament, the next route is to apprehend the culprits, and take them to court for justice to take its course. If there is need for further investigations on corruption, recommendations can be made for the Zimbabwe Anti-corruption Commission (ZACC), to do due diligence before prosecution is instituted.
In the case of legal loopholes as noted by the PPAC, Parliament is compelled to table suitable re-alignments of the relevant statutory instruments in line with the new Constitution to empower appropriate national institutions to deal with such a cancer, threatening to collapse our national systems.
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Zimbabweans cannot afford to live another day with this rot in public enterprises like ministries, parastatals and local authorities.
This should be expeditiously weeded out in order to improve lifestyles for the generality of the populace by investing public funds on public utilities like roads, bridges, hospitals, schools, poverty alleviation programmes, and all civil service delivery systems to benefit the entire nation, than to condone insatiable evil ambitions of selfish and corrupt officials in various bodies.
The most essential aspect to find lasting solutions to this problem is to motivate ZACC, which currently needs the legislative blessings, and the universal participation of all stakeholders. This is the only sure way of stamping out the gnawing nuisance of corruption, which is threatening to tear apart our society.
The most effective way for anti-corruption commission to prevent the evil is to identify corruption areas and then promulgate policies, procedures and regulations that can seal the loopholes. In addition, ZACC should also cast its eyes on public procurement unit, hiring, retention and promotion of public officials, management of public finances and construction of projects.
In the meantime, ZACC’s hands seem to be tied as there is an outstanding legal hurdle, which is fully catered for by the new Constitution Section 255 subsection 3 which states that, “The Government must ensure that, through legislative and other means, that the Zimbabwe Anti-corruption Commission has power to recommend the arrest and secure the prosecution of persons reasonably suspected of corruption, abuse of power and other improper conduct which falls within the Commission’s jurisdiction.”
It is an optimistic anticipation that with the wide and special powers, which can be provided for under the prospective re-alignment of the law in line with the constitutional provision, ZACC can be more formidable and powerful enough to curb corruption. The investigative measures to be adopted by ZACC can be more apparent and transparent for the good of the society as offenders can be arrested, tried and sentenced accordingly in the courts of justice.
The expected law can also empower ordinary citizens by creating a platforms upon which they can also furnish the ZACC with relevant information or tips which can enhance them to execute their responsibilities.
However, the buck stops with Parliament to action accordingly.
