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Herald Reporter
The Parliament of Zimbabwe and the Auditor-General’s Office will receive a $2,8 million grant from the African Development Bank to capacitate them in their quest to achieve transparency and accountability.

The grant, under the banner of Strengthening Institutions of Transparency and Accountability Project (SITAP) through the African Development Fund, will run for the next three years starting from September this year.

In a statement yesterday, the bank said its board of directors met on July 10, 2015 where they approved the grant that is also targeted at promoting gender equality for inclusive and sustainable growth.

“The specific objective is to improve institutional capacity and effectiveness of institutions of public oversight and accountability,” reads the statement.

“The project has three mutually reinforcing components: (i) improved capacity and effectiveness of Parliament; (ii) enhanced capacity and effectiveness of the Office of Auditor- General; and (iii) project management support.

“The various interventions are expected among others, to result in establishing a Parliament Budget Office, aligning laws with the new Republican Constitution, revising laws with greater impact on women’s right and gender, training of women caucus members.” The AfDB said the project was in line with the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation that prioritised inclusive and sustainable growth.

The Parliament of Zimbabwe, through the Clerk, will lead the execution of project implementation but will collaborate with the Auditor-General’s Office and some civil society organisations.

The statement quotes AfDB resident representative in Zimbabwe, Mr Mateus Magala, saying the project was designed in consultation with key stakeholders. “Building upon previous and on-going bank supported capacity building programmes and complementing other development partners’ interventions, the project aims to strengthen oversight institutions and build capacity in areas of accountability,” said Mr Magala

“It will also strengthen the trust between state institutions such as the Parliament of Zimbabwe and CSOs (civil society organisations), thereby contributing to advance the effective implementation of the social con- tract.”

The bank said it has eight active operations with a total commitment of $80 million towards rehabilitation of Kariba Dam, improving economic and financial governance, enhancing youth and tourism development, and developing a transport sector master plan.

“The AfDB also manages four development projects to the tune of US$139.8 million funded by the seven countries which contribute to the Zimbabwe Multi-Donor Trust Fund (Zim-Fund): Australia, Denmark, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

“ZimFund has, thus, been instrumental in rehabilitating key water and sanitation and energy infrastructure in the country. The overall thrust of ZimFund is to rehabilitate the country’s capacity to prevent and deal with threats of deadly water-borne diseases that have been confronting Zimbabwe,” said the bank.