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Lloyd Gumbo Harare Bureau
PUBLIC officials exposed by the Auditor-General of engaging in corruption, mismanagement of public funds and poor corporate governance must be arrested or reprimanded, legal practitioners have said.

The AG, Mildred Chiri, presents audit reports to Parliament every year but no action is ever taken – despite the government repeatedly threatening to crack the whip.

Lawyers yesterday said it was the duty of the legislators as people’s representatives to ensure the implementation of the AG’s recommendations.

Their call comes against a background of recent revelations by the AG’s Office that the government could have been prejudiced of hundreds of millions of dollars by mostly state enterprises among them the Zimbabwe National Roads Administration, the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation and the Environmental Management Agency due to mismanagement and poor governance.

Ironically, it is on the back of the profitability of the state enterprises that the government is working to turn around the economy as they are integral to the mega-deals signed between the government and China recently.

Corruption, analysts say, detracts from the noble goals of Zim-Asset, the country’s economic roadmap.

Lawyer and former Cabinet Minister Munyaradzi Paul Mangwana said Parliament, through its portfolio committees, had the responsibility to scrutinise and recommend litigation on culprits.

“Parliament must then make directives to line ministries and other government departments who are the shareholders to ensure action is taken on such issues,” he said.

“If we’re all silent, that’s how we’re destroying our country. We can’t expect heavens to take action for us.”

Chris Mhike, of Athestone and Cook, said it was disheartening that the AG’s reports were largely ignored despite the fact that she was dispatching her constitutional mandate. “Unfortunately, though very comprehensive and lucid in their examination and analysis of public accounts, the reports are generally shelved with scant regard to the content of the recommendations given by the Auditor-General’s Office,” he said.

“Bureaucrats in the government or quasi-governmental departments and at local authority institutions, need to be constantly reminded that the Auditor-General’s function is constitutional, meaning that disregarding of her directives is tantamount to defiance of the law.

“In terms of Section 309 (3) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe public officers must comply with orders given to them by the Auditor-General. On her part, the Auditor-General should now go beyond the presentation of recommendations. She must issue Orders in accordance with the powers vested in her by the Constitution,” said Mhike.

He said the constitution empowered the AG to order the taking of measures to rectify any defects in the management and safeguarding of public funds and public property.

Mhike said once her views were presented in the form of orders, the implementation of those directives, as opposed to recommendations, become peremptory.

He added: “Once presented in order form, citizens of Zimbabwe, who substantially finance the national fiscus through the national fiscus, could and must then make the necessary follow-up on the compliance or otherwise of the said orders.

“The call to accountability can be pursued through parliamentary and council representatives, civil society, or via judicial remedies. Indeed, Parliament must do more in carrying out its oversight role in respect of State Revenues and Expenditures in terms of Section 299 of the Constitution.

Former Attorney-General, Sobusa Gula-Ndebele said culprits were to be dealt with using defined procedures.

“Each institution must have those procedures to be followed such as penalties and litigation such as what happened with Air Zimbabwe and some other institutions,” he said.