Chiri must be empowered to submit reports to ZACC
Public Accounts Committee chairperson Brian Dube says laws must be amended to allow the Auditor General to also submit audit reports to ZACC and the police.
According to Dube, waiting for the report to be tabled first in Parliament is allowing criminals to run away.
The current system requires that the audit report must be tabled in Parliament first before it can be actioned by the relevant arms of the government.
Speaking during an interface with the media that was organised by Southern Africa Parliamentary Support Trust (SAPST), Honourable Dube said the laws are inadequate and must be reviewed to give the auditor general more options.
‘’First, it (law) is inadequate in that the auditor general report can only be presented to Parliament. It cannot be presented to ZACC. It cannot be presented to the National Prosecuting Authority or to the Zimbabwe Republic Police directly for purposes of prosecution.
‘’I believe this is a setback because some of the things need to be actioned promptly whilst some of the resources have not been exhausted and before people run away.
‘’So, I think we need to reform our law to allow the auditor report as soon as it done and compiled, whilst the process of tabling it in Parliament for purpose of scrutiny is happening, those issues that can be actioned must be actioned by the relevant public arms of the government without waiting for so long for the other processes like a response by the Public Accounts Committee.
‘’So, I think we need to improve on that. We also need to reform our law to indicate that the auditor general report where the minister is unwilling or is unable to table it immediately after receiving it, it must be clear that the auditor general must be able to have it tabled directly in Parliament because the auditor general is an ex-officio Member of Parliament or that the Speaker must be immediately mandated to do so. So that we don’t wait for ministers who hold on to these reports like what happened to the NSSA one where it took so long whilst it was in the executives‘ hands,’’ he said
Chiri must be empowered to submit reports to ZACC
