In the present subject matter, there was a clear refusal by the responsible Minister of tabling the Forensic Audit Report. The Committee and Parliament have experienced similar challenges with other Ministers and other forensic audit reports.
The Committee makes a finding that the current legal provisions pertaining to the tabling of reports needs to be harmonised with the Constitution to remove obstacles presented by Members of the Executive unwilling to have reports tabled.
A key company in the Committee’s enquiry, Univern Enterprises (Private) Limited t/a Southern Region Trading Company, refused to give evidence before the Committee citing legal privilege.
The Committee makes the strong finding that there is no legal privilege or protection that is available to a private actor that would have received State resources either by way of contract, donation or grant.
Wherever public resources are received or used, the Constitution gives absolute power to Parliament of scrutinising use of those resources.
The Committee makes the finding that the legal defence by Univern and other entities in some of the Committee’s enquiries, including the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has no legal basis at all.
Summary of Recommendations
The definition of “special reports” in the Audit Office Act [Chapter 22:18] must be expanded widely to cover any form of inquiry including, Value for Money audits, special internal audits, Forensic Audits and Special Investigations in terms of Section 40 of the Public Enterprises Corporate Governance Act [Chapter 10:31].
The Committee makes the following recommendations:
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This post was last modified on April 25, 2021 6:38 pm
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