MP says look beyond the face when appointing key government officers

The Member of Parliament for Chegutu West Dextor Nduna says Parliament must legislate new laws on the appointment of boards and public officers to that the right people are appointed to positions of authority.

Nduna said the latest report by Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, the government watchdog on how state funds are used, was riddled and pregnant with irregularities and most of these emanated from the way people were appointed to positions  of authority.

Citing the example of Chegutu municipality, Nduna said: “I asked them to look at the history of somebody, not to just to look at the facial features and the long hair, short hair, good ears, big ears and big tummy” but the people did not listen.

In the end they appointed someone who had been accused of defrauding a state company and in no time funds were misappropriated.

Full contribution:

HON. NDUNA: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. Hon. Members are urging to talk about artisanal miners. However, that point has been well ventilated, I stick to accountability. I need to support the mover of this Report and the seconder. I need to take you to the Constitution as to why and how we are listening and trying to adhere to the Report that has been tabled in the House by Hon. Mpariwa.

Section 9, talks to the issue of Good Governance, quoted verbatim Mr. Speaker ‘The State must adopt and implement policies and legislation to develop efficiency, competence, accountability,  transparency, personal integrity and financial probity in all institutions and agencies of Government at every level and in every public institution and in particular -(a) appointment to public offices must be made primarily on merit; (b) measures must be taken to expose, combat eradicate all forms of corruption and abuse of power by those holding political and public offices.’ Then (2) which is the final one on section 9 says ‘the State must ensure that all institutions and agencies of Government at every level, in particular Commissions and other bodies established by or under this Constitution, are provided with adequate resources and facilities to enable them to carry out their functions conscientiously, fairly, honestly and efficiently’. Mr. Speaker Sir.

As I debate on this motion, I want to say how and why we arrive at a Report such as the one we have heard which is riddled and pregnant with a lot of irregularities. It is the issue that she well ventilated and touched on that borders on issues to do with appointment of people in positions of authority that are of no financial integrity. I will reiterate the point that we need as Parliament to legislate in the Constitution the appointment of boards and public officers Mr. Speaker Sir, that we get to know that it is the right people that are in positions of authority – that we do not have recurrence and continued recurrence of funds misappropriated. As we speak Mr. Speaker Sir.

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THE ACTING SPEAKER: Order. The owner of the following vehicle AAV 4597 could you please go and remove the vehicle because it is blocking other vehicles.

HON. NDUNA: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. I want to take you closer to home, in particular Chegutu West, in the Town Council of Chegutu. One time when I was addressing mourners I asked the councilors and the council officials to look beyond just the human face the nice body and such like when they are appointed or when they recruit the particular people that are responsible for handling finances. I asked them to look at the history of somebody, not to just to look at the facial features and the long hair, short hair, good ears, big ears and big tummy. They went against all that advise and appointed one Mhaka who was at NOCZIM who once misappropriated funds there, they got him to cater for funds at Chegutu Town Council.

In no time we hear there has been misappropriation of funds in a place where there is barely any services that are rendered for what the residents are paying for. You will find that what is legislated or what is agreed upon is a charge of $10.00 for water. You will find that the billing that goes to the residents is for $20.00. Even after this irregular billing, you will find that the municipality goes after residents with summons in order to incarcerate them and arrest them, based on a bill that is unfounded. In no time, we then find that the police and the law enforcement agencies are after this person that the council went against all credible advice to put in a position of authority – in particular in a financial position, at the helm of Chegutu Municipality.

How do we get to that? We have got an entity such as CMED which Hon. Mpariwa also touched on. It is operating as we speak, on auto pilot. How did it get there? One time we were talking about a $3 million fuel issue that was at CMED, I will not touch on that.  Arising from that, you then get a whole Loss Control Officer being relieved of his duties at CMED because the perpetrator of the loss of the US$ 3 million was the person who was leading CMED,  that was the boss to this manager who is the Loss Control Officer. Coupled with that Mr. Speaker Sir, your Committee brought to it this Loss Control Officer and also called the Director of Finance to come before the Committee.  Mr. Speaker Sir, as I speak today, those two people were thrown out of their place of employment.  How do we have an entity such as CMED valued as it is, in large sums, operating without a Loss Control Officer or a Financial Director?  We come here and wait for audit results; obviously what is going to come out is an audit result which is riddled with a lot of irregularities.

Mr. Speaker Sir, I will leave CMED now.  I will move on to places such as Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development because the person before you is your Committee Chairperson to the Portfolio Committee on Transport and Infrastructural Development.  We have 10 Provinces Mr. Speaker Sir, which have provincial road engineers working on an acting capacity.  How can you have a provincial road engineer who is working on an acting capacity and is supposed to look after magnitudes of bills of US dollars?  You want them to make far reaching and permanent decisions, but you have them in semi-permanent positions of acting capacity yet you expect an audit which reflects a flawless financial system.  We cannot have that Mr. Speaker Sir.

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As Hon. Mpariwa presented the report, she touched on a loan of US$5million that was given to NRZ.  Mr. Speaker Sir, the department or parastatal that we are talking about is endowed with ubiquitous minerals and claims, both within this country and outside.  They inherited these minerals from Rhodes and Rhodesia.  I am talking about what is available Mr. Speaker Sir.  What is left is optimal excavation, resource mobilisation and extraction of these minerals so that departments and parastatals like NRZ can be resuscitated, restructured so that they operate optimally without asking for US$5million.  It sounds meager as compared to what NRZ owns.  Yes, it still needs to be accounted for but it is my fervent prayer that departments that are endowed with all these resources should be engaged in resource extraction so that they can capitalise these departments primarily and then capitalise Zimbabwe in general in a secondary way.

Mr. Speaker Sir, the issue to do with ownership of resources also resides with the local authorities.  The local authorities that we were talking about yesterday and that I alluded to earlier are endowed with a lot of resources.  Even before they go and get loans from Government and other sectors, they should look within themselves because they are empowered and they have got the power, even to enrich other sectors.  They have land within their locality which is embedded with mineral wealth, which they should utilise optimally.  In the utilisation and extraction of those minerals, they should engage those locals that are in those areas.

What comes to mind immediately, without any shadow of doubt, are artisanal miners Mr. Speaker Sir – [Laughter.] – they are the ones that are holding the economy, this is the new normal…

Hon. Nduna having been speaking to the gallery.

THE ACTING SPEAKER (HON. MUTOMBA): Order, address the Chair Hon. Member.

HON. NDUNA: Thank you for the protection Mr. Speaker Sir.  Mr. Speaker Sir, not looking at you does not mean I am not addressing you.

THE ACTING SPEAKER: Address the Chair.

HON. NDUNA: Sometimes I get carried away Mr. Speaker Sir.

THE ACTING SPEAKER: You should not.

HON. NDUNA: I want to look and see if some artisanal miners are also in this House Mr. Speaker Sir.  However, I have seen that it is the proponents of artisanal mining that are in this House. Once again, I want to thank you for allowing your Committee on Public Finance to bring out a very important motion and report that has ventilated a lot of key issues that we should take on board.  I immensely want to say, their recommendations are very key if we can take them on board for the good governance and order of the people of Zimbabwe.  I thank you.

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