Performance contracts key: Chiri Auditor-General Mrs Mildred Chiri has a number of channels to use to raise any issues of bad accounting or refusal to follow the laid down procedures. 

Zvamaida Murwira

Senior Reporter

Performance contracts recently signed by Government ministers, permanent secretaries and other senior officials might stop the financial malfeasance that has affected service delivery in State entities, Auditor General Mrs Mildred Chiri has said.

She said the current legal framework governing financial accountability and management was adequate but what lacked was compliance and enforcement.

Speaking in Nyanga at a media workshop recently, she said the performance contracts signed by senior Government officials will go a long way in ensuring that audit reports and recommendations were taken seriously and implemented.

“Having a list of laws might be not enough without a proper work culture. We now have performance contracts that have been signed. I think these contracts will also act as an incentive for people to implement audit recommendations.”

She said the current legal framework was conducive for her to discharge her work.

The laws include the Constitution, Public Finance and Management Act and Audit Office Act among others.

But those rules needed to be enforced.

“What is lacking is enforcement and implementation of audit recommendations. This is why the Public Service Commission has introduced training on work ethics. Moral fibre has gone down and it is necessary that we go back to basics. We can have a lot of laws but without work ethics they will not help,” she said.

“Without work ethics, people will still find a way to commit crime such as corruption and fraud.”

Her office would continue to name and shame companies that fail to deliver upon getting Government contracts despite threats of litigation for the firms. She said in her 2019 annual report, she had abandoned publication of names of those firms that failed to deliver or supply products and services after securing contracts from the Government.

This was after the firms had threatened litigation saying naming them had an adverse effect on their reputation.

But Mrs Chiri said after conferring with Parliament’s Public Accounts committee, it was agreed that she continued naming those offending firms.

“We agreed with Parliament to have these names published. People who do business with the Government should know that there are prone to public scrutiny. We have reverted to naming of people who do not deliver with regard to Government business,” said Mrs Chiri.

She also implored on those external auditors contracted to carry out forensic audits to do their work professionally and thoroughly.

“We have told them that their audits should survive the test and scrutiny of courts. It should be beyond reproach,” she said.

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