Maridadi says prosecutor-general and police must sit on the Public Accounts Committee to deal with those who misuse government funds

I want to put the issue of Farmers World into perspective.  As Government or as Parliament, we were not able to know who the owners of Farmers World are.  So, what has happened, Mr. Speaker, is that there is a group of people that call themselves Farmer’s World.  They have borrowed money from China Bank, US$11 million.  They have not been able to give that money back to the bank and our Government has paid that loan on behalf of farmers World to the tune of US$11 556 000.  What it means is that this is tax payers money which has been used to liquidate a debt of private citizens, private people, to the tune of US$11 million.

Mr. Speaker, needless to say what US$11 million could do for nurses that are not going to receive their salary at the end of this month;  needless to say what US$5 million would do for this Parliament which is unable to go for outreach programmes because of lack of resources.  I will leave that aside.  I will continue with the Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development and let me talk of big sums of money only.  Absence of source documents to substantiate the aggregate variance in revenue amounting to US$3 million.  What it means is that there is US$3 million missing from the Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development which cannot be accounted for.

I will go to another large sum.  Minister of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing.  They made payments of US$11 million, but the US$11 million was not supported by documents.  So US$11 million was given by the Ministry, but there were no documents to support it.

Mr. Speaker, I could go on and on.  What is important at this juncture is to go to the recommendations of the Portfolio Committee on Public Accounts and say, I would recommend two extra things.  In other jurisdictions like in Kenya and in Uganda, people from the Prosecutor General’s office sit in the Public Accounts Committee and officers from fraud squad also sit in the Public Accounts Committee.  When issues of potential fraud are raised, there is no need to go to the police and make a report because the police will then start investigating straight away.

What happens in our case is that when you have a report like the one that I have presented here, somebody must then go to the ZRP and make a report and then action will follow, but in other jurisdictions, you do not have to make a report.  Straight away, there are police officers that sit on that Committee and as soon as the Public Committees are done analysing the report of the Auditor General, action is taken.  The Ministry of Home Affairs comes in and the Zimbabwe Anti Corruption Commission comes in.

The other issue I want to talk about is about banks like Interfin.  Interfin Bank was used by this Government as a conduit to do financial transactions on behalf of Government.  A lot of money was put into Interfin Bank and Interfin Bank was declared technically solvent.  What it means is that, Government money was swallowed in Interfin Bank.  The Ministry of Finance and Economic Development is the regulator of financial institutions in Zimbabwe.  How did they put money into a bank which would collapse in three months time?  I do not understand it.  That is one aspect.

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