AG Chiri set for reappointment Auditor-General Mrs Mildred Chiri
Auditor-General Mrs Mildred Chiri

Auditor-General Mrs Mildred Chiri

Nyemudzai Kakore and Zvamaida Murwira, Harare Bureau
GOVERNMENT is set to retain current Auditor-General Mildred Chiri after Parliament in July this year rejected the nomination of Industrial Development Corporation chief executive officer Mr Mike Ndudzo as her replacement.

Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa yesterday gave a notice to move a motion in the National Assembly that he would seek Parliament to adopt the appointment of Mrs Chiri as Auditor-General in terms of the Constitution.

“That whereas, subsection (1) of Section 310 (Appointment of Auditor-General) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe provides that an Auditor-General is appointed by the President with the approval of Parliament,” he said.

“And whereas, subsection (1) (a) of Section 340 (Appointments) of the Constitution provides the President with the power to reappoint a Public office holder into such office;

“Now therefore in terms of the aforementioned subsection (1) of Section 310 of the Constitution, this House resolves and approves that Mrs Mildred Chiri be appointed Auditor-General of the Republic of Zimbabwe for a further term in office effective from the 25th of February 2017.”

In July legislators across the political divide shot down the appointment of Mr Ndudzo to replace Mrs Chiri saying his track record in several state entities was appalling.

The legislators said Government should re-appoint Mrs Chiri whom they said had done a sterling job in unearthing several financial irregularities in Government ministries and state entities.

Meanwhile, Minister Chinamasa yesterday rapped line ministries for failing to rein in parastatals and entities falling under their purview.

He said the 2016 Auditor-General report on State Enterprises and Parastatals continued to reveal ongoing deep-rooted and far reaching governance problems which line ministries were failing to address.

Minister Chinamasa said this during the second reading of the Public Entities Corporate Governance Bill.

“Our state entities, which could otherwise have been playing a vital role in contributing to the revenue realised by Government, presenting employment opportunities to our citizens, producing exports receipts as well as products for domestic consumption, have instead, been the proverbial albatross around the neck of our national economy,” he said.

“Previous efforts to encourage compliance with sound corporate governance principles such as the Corporate Governance Framework for state enterprises and parastatals in 2010 and more recently the National Code on Corporate Governance in 2015, have gone largely unheeded by most public entities and in equal extent, by their responsible line ministries.”

Minister Chinamasa said the Bill will also bring order and rationality in the “ludicrous” remuneration that certain board members of public entities had been awarding themselves.

He said the Bill will bring into it clauses to the effect that board members and senior management who will be appointed based on merit, shall declare their assets prior to assumption of duty.

Said Minister Chinamasa: “This clause will allow a ceiling to be set on the amount of remuneration board members may receive, or even specify an exact amount payable. If a member breaches the remuneration set in terms of this provision, they will become liable to a surcharge for the purposes of recouping the value of money improperly paid out to such member.”

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