Why Zimbabwe’s Auditor-General needs more bite to tackle endemic looting in parastatals

ZINARA replies: “Observation noted. We will ensure all allowances and benefits pass through the payroll.”

What shows the impunity is that ZINARA had previously been fined by ZIMRA for not paying tax on allowances, and yet continued not to pay.

The reason is that, like most heads of state enterprises and government departments, they know that nothing will happen to them, beyond being named in an audit report.

They know that the worst that can happen to them is a few days of bad press.

It’s a small price to pay for holiday allowances and thousands of dollars’ worth of illegal perks.

This is why the A-G needs to be given more teeth.

Section 309 (2) of the Constitution allows the A-G to “order the taking of measures to rectify any defects in the management and safeguarding of public funds and public property” .

According to the Audit Office Act, which governs her office, the most she can do is to “lay before the Attorney-General a case in writing as to any question regarding which the Comptroller and Auditor-General requires a legal opinion, and the Attorney-General shall furnish the Comptroller and Auditor-General with such legal opinion”.

It is scant reward for all the work that Chiri and her team have been putting in over the years.

 At most, the report is a rap on the wrist for the serial pilferers of public funds that, repeatedly, tell her that her concerns are “noted”.

It is time that the A-G’s office was given the powers to refer issues for prosecution, at the very least.

A similar debate arose in South Africa recently over the powers of their own A-G, after a report revealed widespread mismanagement across the country’s local authorities.

Earlier, the country’s chief justice Mogoeng Mogoeng had spoken in favour of stronger powers for the office, to end the culture of impunity.

“When people know that no consequences would flow from what they do, or minimal consequences would flow from what they do, they are in all likelihood going to do it again and again and again,” Mogoeng said.

And sure enough, across Chiri’s report, there is evidence of public officials repeating the same offences that the A-G would have warned about, year after year.

Out of the 151 audit recommendations raised during the 2015 financial year, less than half were implemented in 2016.

A mere 12 percent of the recommendations are classified as “in progress”.

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