CCC Harare West MP, Joana Mamombe, says practical measures should be taken to combat rampant and growing corruption in Zimbabwe, while transparency and accountability must be central to the management of public affairs and financial resources.
She made these remarks in parliament on Tuesday while contributing to a debate on the mid-term fiscal policy review.
This comes as the country reels from various multi-million dollar big money corruption scandals, some of them exposed by The NewsHawks which routinely does that.
Mamombe said:”Thank you Madam Speaker Ma’am for theopportunity to add my voice to the Mid-Term Fiscal Policy Review. I would want to concur with the contributions that have been made by the Chairperson of the Budget Committee (Clemence Chiduwa) and also the other Hon. Members who added their voices. I think it is important to first recognise that when we are doing the Mid-Term Fiscal Policy Review, we need to factor into account the issues of transparency and issues of accountability, which I actually think that those two issues are the backbone of us having this Mid-Term Fiscal Policy Review.I am happy to say that the Hon. Minister, in his budget speech,mentioned on some issues on accountability and transparency, but I think it was prudent for the Hon. Minister to elaborate in terms of the measures, strategies that the Ministry intends to take to combat issues of corruption. When we are speaking about transparency andaccountability, we need to address the issues of corruption.I was just browsing on the website of Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc). Since January this year, they have recorded 999 cases of corruption and these cases ofcorruption are not ordinary individuals. These are public officials that are misappropriating funds. You can talk about all the government institutions. We have had public officials being corrupt and the Hon. Minister did not clearly highlight the strategies that they intend to take to combat issues of corruption.I would want the Hon. Minister, in his response, to kindlyelaborate on the measures that he is going to take together with the Ministry to ensure that there is going to be accountability and also proper utilisation of public funds. If you look at the Auditor-General (AG)’s Report, it was presented here in Parliament and it also pointed out to a lot of corruption issues particularly in Government Institutions. As a Ministry of Finance, I think it was good for you to recognise some of these issues that were raised in the AG’s Report and also to elaborate in this House how the Ministry intends to curb such corruption.I also want to just highlight that the Hon. Minister before he came to present the Mid-Term Review Statement the day before, he announced on national television and had a press conference where healso announced that they have 51 companies that were black listed over parallel markets. It is very good that you announced that there are 51 companies that have been black listed. In terms of gaining the moneyback that has been misappropriated and embezzled, that has not been elaborated in the fiscal policy.If you look at the budget speech on point 89 where the Hon.Minister was referring that he wants to build confidence, he wants to put in place measures that will institute and clearly communicate to the market when it comes to such issues. So, I want to bring to yourattention that it is very important that the Hon. Minister instead of justpassing through to say as a Ministry, we are doing our best to curb corruption, we want to understand as a House, the strategies that you areputting in place to address corruption issues. Women and children, they bear the brand of corruption. The Hon. Members who have spoken before me, spoke about social services that are lacking in this country.They spoke about education and health that has deteriorated in the country. One of the fundamental reasons that has been mentioned is theissue of corruption. However, in terms of not curbing that corruption, weare mentioning; everyone is talking that there is rampant corruption in the country. How many people have been arrested – 999 according toZACC’s statistic. However, in terms of now, what the Ministry is doing, we are silent about it. The lack of accountability, it hampers thecountry`s confidence, to actually have confidence on the Fiscal Policy itself. Right now, we are talking about the drought that has been caused as an effect or result of the climate change. Instead of us addressing drought right now, we could be using that money that has beenembezzled. We could be using that money to actually address issues like drought and Cyclone Idai because right now all the money is going to drought but we could have been curbing corruption so that this moneycan be utilised to address such issues. Hon. (Corban) Madzivanyika talked aboutthe country’s debt. We have an external debt of 58% as we speak. We also have a domestic debt of 41%. Instead of borrowing and creating thishuge debt as a country, we could also be utilising again the money that is being embezzled through corruption. We know the sums of amounts thathave been mentioned in this country. The court cases that are currently happening in Zimbabwe, that have been caused by corruption. So, we need to make sure that what has been spoken by Hon. Madzivanyika saying ongorora chaita kuti musoro uteme; we need to address issues ofcorruption.The Minister of Finance, in his response, must actually highlight, what are the measures, the critical measures to curb issues of corruptionand public funds embezzlement. I would not want to waste much of thetime because a lot of things have been said. The funds…
.THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER (HON. TSITSI ZHOU): Order, order, manga muchitaura zvakanaka wani. You need to continue addressing the Chair and not respond to different Hon. Members.
HON. MAMOMBE: Definitely, I apologise Madam Speaker Ma’am. I was just disturbed, my order of presentation was disturbed. To just add on as a last point, I want to emphasise that citizens of this country cannot continue to bleed; to be paying taxes in this country. Weare misappropriating the taxpayers’ money. The funds that are being abused in this country are taxpayers’ funds. So, I really plead with theMinister in his response to address issues of corruption. I thank you.”
