Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Public Accounts chairperson, Paurina Mpariwa, yesterday welcomed the announcement by Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa that the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) would be aligned to the Constitution, saying this was long overdue.
BY VENERANDA LANGA
Mpariwa told NewsDay that Chinamasa should now walk the talk on the alignment of the PFMA, which is pivotal in instilling accountability in the manner public funds were used in the country.
“The alignment of the PFMA will promote transparency and accountability by government departments and it should be done urgently because as the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) we hope that if the law is aligned to the Constitution, we will not have many problems with accounts of government departments that are shambolic,” she said. Among some of the amendments to be done on the PFMA were that the National Budget should provide an allocation of not less than 5% to local authorities.
Since the promulgation of the 2013 Constitution, the government has been failing to allocate 5% from the budget to local authorities.
A 2017 law review by Midlands State University titled, Interpreting the Scope of Fiscal Devolution under Zimbabwe’s 2013 Constitution, emphasised the need for local authorities to receive the stipulated 5% budgetary support from government in order to be able to solve the high demand for health services and other social services needed in the country.
The alignments of PFMA to Constitution is also expected to broaden the scope of institutions that must be subject to audit by the Auditor-General Mildred Chiri.
