BY HARRIET CHIKANDIWA FINANCE minister Mthuli Ncube has appealed to Parliament for condonation for unauthorised expenditure amounting to $100,7 billion in 2020 and $6,8 billion for 2019.
This is contained in the Financial Adjustment Bill of 2022.
“In line with the above, we seek condonation for unauthorised expenditure incurred by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development of $100 690 788 418 for year ended 2020: $6 783 930 028 for year ended 2019,” the Financial Adjustment Bill of 2022 read.
Section 307 of the Constitution stipulates that the minister should seek condonation for unauthorised expenditure.
Auditor-General Mildred Chiri in her reports has continued to expose how government was living beyond its means and spending recklessly and in violation of the Constitution.
“In previous years, Zimbabwe was facing an unsustainably high budget deficit due to the high spending pattern which has destabilising implications not only to the financial sector, but also to the rest of the economy. The fiscal consolidation reforms implemented in 2019 National Budget in order to reverse fiscal disequilibrium resulted in a decrease in the budget deficit between 2018 and 2019,” the Financial Adjustment Bill adds.
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“As such, the Financial Adjustment Bill should be seen as part of the policy to help assist in delivering fiscal consolidation for sustainable development, this requires robust legal, policy, regulatory and structural reforms.”
In her 2020 annual report, Chiri exposed how Ncube unconstitutionally transferred over $100 billion to line ministries without parliamentary approval, taking advantage of poor accounting systems at the Treasury.
Economic analyst Prosper Chitambara said: “Key question is how the deficit is going to be financed, the financing of that will determine whether that will be destabilising to the economy or not, overspending is not a problem when you are overspending to fund infrastructure.”
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