By Own Correspondent- Government has further tightened mechanisms to prevent the abuse of public finances by gazetting regulations that provide for investigation and punishment of public officials found guilty of financial misconduct.

Accounting officers (or executive authority) are now compelled to institute an investigation into an act of misconduct by officials of public organisations, in terms of the latest regulations, within 30 days of the impropriety being discovered.

The Transitional Stabilisation Programme (TSP) prioritises strengthening of the public management system, building on work already being done under the World Bank-managed Zimbabwe Reconstruction Fund to roll out the system to cover all districts.

In the context of TSP, Treasury will also put in place measures to ensure the strict enforcement of approved penalties for cases of non-compliance with requirements of public resource management legislation.

The regulations will help put a stop to the culture of impunity where over the years, bad governance and mismanagement practices in public entities, line ministries and statutory bodies, have led to the loss of millions of dollars of public funds.

Most of the impropriety happened at a time when Government faced serious financial and other resource limitations needed to meet an extensive array of obligations.

Each year, the Auditor-General’s office has uncovered startling acts of corruption, mismanagement and abuse of public resources in State-owned or controlled entities and institutions to the detriment of Government plans, objectives and goals.

The new regulations designed to end the rot in State institutions are contained in Statutory Instrument (SI) 135 of 2019, dubbed Public Finance Management (General) Regulations, 2019, published in the Government gazette yesterday.-StateMedia