Said Hwange East Member of Parliament, Tose Sansole:

“Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir.  I think you will agree with me that sound financial management is at the core of any society.  So to have a whole Ministry of Finance and Economic Development that is supposed to supervise all other ministries in the conduct of their financial affairs failing to comply with legislation that regulates such as the Public Finance Management Act is unacceptable.

We have a Ministry of Finance and Economic Development that is expected to lead by example because it supervises all other ministries which failed to abide by legislation which governs financial affairs in Government.  I want to buttress the view expressed in the report that the Accounting Officer in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development was uncooperative and very defensive.  

Instead of explaining the matters that arose, he apportioned them to legacy issues and said that he was not there when they occurred.  As Accounting Officer, he is accountable for what happens in the Ministry regardless of the fact that he was not there because we look at the institution and not the person heading the institution.  The Accounting Officer is expected to take full responsibility for the activities that took place in the Ministry.

Apart from the failure to avail information relating to the State’s indebtedness, the Ministry failed to also allocate 5% of the nation’s revenues as expected in the Constitution in line with the devolution agenda.  

It failed to allocate 5% of national revenue to local authorities and to provincial councils that were to be set up in terms of devolution which is clearly spelt out in the Constitution.  There were cases of over expenditure which occurred without the Ministry seeking condonation from Parliament and no satisfactory explanation was given for those transgressions by the Accounting Officer.

Regarding the failure to submit monthly consolidated financial statements for the period and for each quarter, the Accountant-General could not give explanations.  The Ministry is expected every month to give financial statements for each month and subsequent to that, every other month, cumulative figures for the quarter and half year leading to the year.  The build-up also helps us in coming up with the budget for the ensuing year.

To date, the financial statements that have been prepared by the Ministry for the months of April and May 2019 contained numerous errors and that is not acceptable for a Ministry of Finance and Economic Development.  The Ministry’s failure to comply with Sections 11 (2); 13 (1); 20 (2) and 22 (2) of the Public Debt Management Act are all indicative of the lack of seriousness on the part of the Ministry in as far as the discharge of responsibilities is concerned.

The net effect of these transgressions is excessive borrowing with no regard to limits by the State and local authorities and that is not acceptable, Mr. Speaker Sir.

We also had incidents of keeping Parliament in the dark regarding such borrowings and that is also not acceptable because Parliament must be aware of the state of indebtedness of the country. 

 In addition, failure by the Ministry, except in 2019 where there has been an allocation, to allocate at least 5% of the national revenues to provinces and local authorities is a violation of the Constitution.  It is also a clear indication that the Government pays lip service to the issue of devolution.

As you can see from the report that was presented by the Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, expenditure outside the budget has been a common occurrence for the past five years from 2014 and the Ministry has not bothered to come to Parliament to seek condonation for such excesses.  This will not be allowed going forward, Mr. Speaker Sir.  I think the Public Accounts Committee must use its teeth to bite and bite effectively.

Finally, I have noted that failure to comply with the law, particularly the Public Finance Act, is not only prevalent in the Ministry of Finance, we have found that in other ministries as well.  

There are directors in other ministries who are expected to provide their monthly and quarterly financial statements to the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development who also failed to do so during the period under review.  We expect all ministries to comply and also to comply within the set timelines.  I want to thank you Mr. Speaker Sir.