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Farirai Machivenyika
Senior Reporter
PARLIAMENTARIANS want institutions tasked with fighting corruption better empowered so they can tackle issues raised by the Auditor General, Mrs Mildred Chiri, over the years.

Speaking yesterday at a meeting to review the Auditor General’s 2020 reports on ministries and other public institutions that were tabled in Parliament recently, legislators noted the same issues had been raised in previous reports and there was a need to tackle these thoroughly.

Mrs Chiri’s reports were on State-owned enterprises and parastatals, local authorities and ministry appropriation accounts, finance and revenue statements and fund accounts.

In her reports, Mrs Chiri raised issues on governance, failure to follow procurement procedures and mismanagement of assets, among others.

The legislators said some of the issues noted by the Auditor General had been raised in her previous reports with some being a possible indication of corruption.

Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, Mr Brian Dube, said it was worrying that the reports continued to raise issues that have been raised before and called for more resources to fight corruption.

“We note that there is continuous violation, and the unfortunate part is ‘what is it that is supposed to be done?’ What we must do is to make sure that there are consequences for wrongful conduct and action,” he said.

Mr Dube said more resources should be channelled towards creating specialist units in the ZRP, the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission and the National Prosecution Authority to handle high-level corruption.

“Some of the organisations and institutions tasked with dealing with the matters have failed because of incompetence or incapacity to deal with high-level corruption,” he said.

Mr Dube said some of the people accused of corruption have resources to hire the best lawyers to defend themselves.

Chairperson of Parliament’s Budget, Finance and Development Committee, Dr Matthew Nyashanu, said there was a need to strengthen graft-fighting institutions.

“There is a need to see how we can improve capacities in our organisations. We need to strengthen our oversight institutions, the ZRP, ZACC and Parliament,” he said.

Director of Parliament’s Budget Office, Mr Pepukai Chivore, said it was important that the Auditor General’s office should be adequately resourced to retain staff so that it carries out its mandate effectively. He urged Parliament to ensure that the Auditor General’s office got one percent of the National Budget allocation as is the best practice internationally.

Mr Chivore said Mrs Chiri’s office should also be empowered to prosecute people accused of corruption in the audits.