Source: Mugabe must sue thieving ministers: Parly – DailyNews Live
Gift Phiri 2 April 2017
HARARE – President Robert Mugabe and his Cabinet are responsible for suing
ministers and other government bureaucrats fingered in blatant theft of
millions of government dollars by Auditor-General Mildred Chiri,
Parliament has said.
This comes after Chiri has routinely issued adverse reports on abuse of
public funds, but they have gone largely ignored with no discernible
action taken against the culprits.
Last year, the auditor-general’s report on Appropriation Accounts, State
Enterprises and Parastatals found 22 ministries out of a total 26 to have
abused funds as well as having flouted procurement procedures and
governance rules.
Police have said they cannot act on the persistent allegations of
corruption against ministers because there was no complainant.
Assistant clerk of Parliament Johane Gandiwa said the Public Accounts
Committee – a body in the legislature that must study public audits – had
no fiduciary responsibility for levelling corruption charges against
thieving ministers.
“It is not the duty of Parliament to govern. Parliament does not appoint
ministers. It is the duty of the Executive. We cannot be a complainant. We
expect the Executive to take up the issue,” Gandiwa told a recent workshop
in Gweru to enhance editors’ understanding of the mandate and functions of
Parliament and the Public Accounts Committee.
“It is against the principle of separation of powers,” he said, referring
to a political doctrine prescribing separation of political power between
the legislature, executive, and judiciary.
Mugabe recently urged the public to presume ministers’ innocence until
proven guilty.
Speaking on his 93rd birthday interview, Mugabe said: “We only hear so and
so is corrupt. Well, this could be the case. Perhaps the big fish might
also be capable of hiding their corruption. I don’t know. Or are people
afraid to come out and even come to us and say so and so steals such
amounts and we investigate that.
“For now we only hear big fish, big fish, big fish. People were in the
habit of accusing the others of being corrupt with no evidence.
“I will investigate but I don’t want political attacks as it were…if
there are evidence we will pursue that evidence and certainly we will deal
with the persons.”
Gandiwa noted that evidence discovered from an audit cannot be used in a
judicial proceeding.
The courts’ main objections are based on the auditor receiving the
corruption assumptions in out-of-court discussions, normally subject to
the hearsay rule.
The assistant clerk of Parliament however said parliamentary portfolio
committees “are pushing.” He said there were legislative reforms underway
to bolster anti-corruption efforts.
Gandiwa said the Public Accounts Committee – chaired by an opposition MP
Paurina Mpariwa – recently came up with 18 recommendations directed at
Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa, which have all been accepted by the
Finance minister.
Chinamasa told the National Assembly last month he has started a process
to take action over damning exposes by the AG.
The Finance minister said his handicap was that he did not have the staff
to comb through the voluminous auditor’s reports.
This was after legislators called on Parliament to bring the Executive to
order for grand scale theft of public money which has deprived some of
Zimbabwe’s poorest citizens of better access to fundamental services such
as health and education.
Years of evidence indicate that Zimbabwe’s current political system is
built on patronage and that ultimately high-level corruption is rewarded
rather than punished.
Chinamasa said he had to negotiate with the Civil Service Commission so
that government creates an establishment solely dedicated to reading the
government auditor’s reports and responding to them.
“I believe we are almost getting there,” Chinamasa said. “You cannot
respond to all those auditor’s reports unless there is some team dedicated
to ploughing through all those reports and disseminating or rather
discriminating what may not be quite true and what is true and correcting
the mistakes which are pointed out in those reports.”
Antony Chigumba, director of audit in the AG’s office, said they were “a
Supreme Audit Institution (SAI) of Zimbabwe” that examines, audits and
report to Parliament on the management of public resources with the aim of
improving accountability and good corporate governance.
But despite the AG’s myriad damning corruption reports, the State has
failed to hold the highest members of government accountable for theft of
public funds, despite its stated commitment to eradicating corruption and
much good work from investigators and prosecutors at the technical level.
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