Parliament says Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission is grossly underfunded

THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Order, order, less noise in the House Hon. Members.

HON. T. DUBE: Similarly, other high impact activities at Manyame Airbase, Jason Ziyaphapha Moyo Airbase and Josiah Tungamirai Airbase should be fully funded.

Conclusion

The Ministry of Defence, Security and War Veterans is very important since its mandate ensures the necessary conditions for all other ministries to function well. Therefore, its operations should be fully funded to the tune of $400 million (excluding employment costs). This will guarantee the nation peace and a business environment which is investor friendly. Failure to adequately fund this Ministry results in serious operational challenges and have multiple negative effects to all other ministries in Zimbabwe.

The ZACC has a very important mandate of combating corruption, theft and abuse of power and other improprieties in Zimbabwe through investigation, public education, prevention and cause prosecution after thorough investigations. It achieved a lot in 2017 with limited financial support from Treasury and is set to achieve more targets set for 2018, hence requires adequate funding.

The Commission was restricted by Treasury to an expenditure target of $2.469 million during the 2018 budget consultations. This allocation disregarded the Commission’s huge but achievable expenditure targets earmarked for 2018 which are critical in the whole country.

The final allocation of the Commission for its 2018 budget was $3 351 million including employment costs. This allocation is 0.07% of the total National Budget and is far below the international best practices of allocating at least 5% of the National Budget to the Anti-Corruption agencies to cater for recurrent and capital expenditures. The Commission bided for $17.4 million excluding employment costs.

We recommend that ZACC should be allocated adequate funds so that it fills in all the 141 vacancies so that effective structures and systems are set up and operationalised as soon as possible. Sub offices in Midlands, Bulawayo, Masvingo and Manicaland will be set up, manned and operationalised.

The Commission’s Budget should be increased up to the amount that was bided. This means that Treasury should allocate ZACC its required $17.4 million to cater for all its operational costs for 2018.

Allocation for employment costs should be urgently reviewed upwards so that ZACC staff is paid in line with salaries and other conditions of service of other Anti-Corruption Commissions in the SADC region.

The Commission is able to attract, retain and effectively utilize specialist staff skills with ideal qualifications to investigate corruption cases that are complex in nature.

Temptation to accept bribes from corrupt criminals by the Commission’s officers is reduced and rather the Commission’s officers will be motivated to discharge their duties.

In conclusion, it should be noted that the ZACC is the lead institution in fighting corruption in Zimbabwe in this new dispensation. Therefore, the Commission should be fully funded so that it sets all the necessary structures and systems required and effectively deliver on its mandate to curb Zimbabwe’s number one enemy – corruption. I thank you.

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