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Govt urged to address corporate governance failures

Business
GOVERNMENT should put in place mechanisms to address corporate governance failures in State enterprises and parastatals to ensure such anomalies do not recur, an official has said.

GOVERNMENT should put in place mechanisms to address corporate governance failures in State enterprises and parastatals to ensure such anomalies do not recur, an official has said.

BY TARISAI MANDIZHA

Stuart Comberbach
Stuart Comberbach

Speaking at the public sector audit conference and awards ceremony in Harare yesterday, corporate governance and delivery unit secretary in the Office of the President and Cabinet, Stuart Comberbach, said despite Auditor-General’s report on serious corporate governance failures in the public sector, the line ministries have been slow in making follow ups.

He said line ministries have failed to put mechanisms in place to ensure the deficiencies do not recur.

“The 2015 Auditor-General’s narrative report to government on appropriation accounts and on State enterprises and parastatals once again has revealed ongoing, deep-rooted and far-reaching corporate governance problems across the public sector and persistent failure by line ministries, parastatals, State enterprises boards and executive management to adequately or effectively address those problems,” Comberbach said.

“This is not to say nothing is being done. One has to work on the assumption that when faced with empirical documented evidence of corporate governance failings, management, be it at a line ministry or at State enterprise level, will take the necessary remedial action firstly to address the identified failing and secondly to ensure that mechanisms or safeguards are put in place to ensure that there is no recurrence.”

He said the government was crafting the Public Entities Corporate Governance Bill, which seeks to address corporate governance failures.

“The Bill came before Cabinet, but it’s a strong document, which was drafted by Zimbabweans and it captures the essence of the national code of corporate governance and it will serve to strengthen corporate governance compliance across the public sector. The Bill will address all sectors of corporate governance appointment of board members among other areas,” Comberbach said.

“It requires line ministries to be much more focused and effective in terms of their oversight and supervisory responsibilities under their umbrella. It’s not something that can happen overnight but it’s a process putting the systems in place.”

Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Public Accounts chairman, David Chapfika said Parliament should create oversight capacity for legislators to enhance their capacity through training.