Its Aloota Continua!

Reading through the annual reports of the Comptroller and Auditor-General is a sad and disheartening process. It is one that makes clear that there are financial and economic issues that go to the root of the political, social and economic malaise in Zimbabwe.

These reports clarify that after all the political wheeling and dealing and agreeing and so on is done, if Zimbabwe continues to lack a system that enforces laws against looting of state resources, then there can be no sustainable political, social or economic progress in Zimbabwe.

Occasional noise

What makes the Comptroller and Auditor-Generals reports sad reading in this context is the fact that these reports actually reveal in technical, clear-cut, factual language, the corruption going on as regards state resources, yet nothing is ever done in following up these issues.

Indeed, the same frauds and abuses of state resources are repeatedly pointed out year after year. Yet in spite of this, the thefts, lootings and other disappearances of state funds and resources continue and no one is ever brought to justice; and the shortcomings in processes which allow for this reaping off of the state coffers are never rectified.

Occasionally, some noise is generated when the Comptroller and Auditor-General issues some special report or other, but one merely needs to read the annual reports to get an idea of the on-going nature of the fraud and abuse of state resources.

The annual reports reveal extreme levels of impropriety regarding public finances and incorrigibility in this respect. Take for example these cases highlighted in the reports of the Comptroller and Auditor-General from 2003 to 2006 as follows:

Financial irregularities

A remarkable example of financial irregularity is a most curious matter of amounts paid by the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education for four Mitsubishi Canter vehicles in July 2005 and detailed at page 142 of the Comptroller and Auditor-Generals 2005 report.

By the end of September 2006, there had been no delivery of the vehicles. No tender documents or payment vouchers as regards this had been availed to the Comptroller and Auditor-General despite repeated requests. At the time of the 2006 audit (which was certainly after 20 December 2007 as that is when the Ministry tendered its accounts for audit), the 4 vehicles had still not been delivered; this is as expressed at page 92 of the 2006 report.

Neither the tender documents nor the payment vouchers had been delivered to the Comptroller and Auditor-General in spite of repeated requests. There has been no investigation or action taken in respect of this matter;

At page 117 of the 2006 report, it is noted that the Ministry of Rural Housing and Social Amenities failed to account for $4 355 000 which was alleged to have been misappropriated but that there was no evidence to show that investigations had commenced with the aim of establishing the perpetrators of the fraud and recovering the money;

At page 125 of the 2005 report, it is noted that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs failed to take steps to recover an amount of US$63 752 misappropriated by one of its officers stationed at the Beijing foreign mission;

There is misallocation where money in fund accounts meant for certain programmes is used for entirely different programmes. This is reported as regards the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing in the 2004 report at page 141.

In some cases, funds were deliberately misallocated to items that already had funds as reflected at page 143 of the 2005 report regarding the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs where the Comptroller and Auditor-General pointed out that the text was deliberately not completed when entering expenditure details in order to hide the nature of the expenditure.

At least three other Ministries were cited for this, being the Ministry of Youth, Development and Employment Creation at page 144 of the 2005 report, the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare at page 135 of the 2005 report and the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education at page 91 of the 2006 report for the second year running;

The Registrar-Generals Retention Fund is established under section 30 of the Audit and Exchequer Act to provide additional services for all vital registration exercises, staff training, staff welfare, awarding of merits and informational needs n the Registrar-Generals office.

It purchased 23 vehicles without obtaining authority from the State Procurement Board as per legal requirements; this is stated at page 333 of the 2005 report.

This fund is allowed to retain 10 per centum of the revenue collected by the Registrar-Generals department in terms of its Constitution. It, however, retained 100 per centum of the funds without any parliamentary amendment to its Constitution to allow this;

At page 311 of the Comptroller and Auditor-Generals 2005 report, it is noted that the Public Service Rural Amenities Fund was used to fund the Ministers entertainment, the Permanent Secretarys Air ticket, a Christmas party for the Ministrys Head office staff and some disbursed to an officer for traveling and subsistence expenses which the Comptroller and Auditor-General ruled improper. All of this expenditure was not that for which the fund was established;

At page 189 of the 2004 report, the Comptroller and Auditor-General expressed concern about unexplained debits amounting to $335 000 from the Funeral Assistance Fund (established under the Audit and Exchequer Act to provide grants for the purposes of assisting with the funeral expenses of deceased civil servants who have been in service for a least two years other than those covered by the State Service (Disability Benefits) Act). This was the fourth year running that concerns had been expressed about these debits, yet the debits had continued and there had been no investigation into who was making these withdrawals and for what purpose;

At page 150 of the 2004 report, it was pointed out that the Ministry of Youth, Gender and Employment Creation had failed to convene Boards of Inquiry to investigate numerous losses and damages to state property as required by Treasury Instruction 2302 with missing equipment from various districts and vehicle accidents from head office not being investigated;

At page 22 of the 2003 report, it was noted that possible cases of misappropriation of public funds which amounted to $9 860 057 in the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare from 2002 remained unresolved as at December 31 2003 and that there was a need to follow up on the cases and finalise them; this was repeated in the next years report i.e. at page 110 of the 2004 report, as was the concern that there was a need to tighten internal control systems to protect public funds under the control of that Ministry;

Also of concern was a huge bill for car hire incurred without going to tender as regards the Ministry of Defence at page 114 of the 2004 report, a huge expenditure on the purchase of flats by the Zimbabwe Prison Service cited at page 163 of the 2004 report in respect of which the Ministry of Home Affairs failed to provide Tender Board Authority;

Borrowing limitations

Other issues set out in the reports relate to the Executive flouting of state borrowing and guarantee limitations and borrowing without the requisite authority. The reports of the Comptroller and Auditor-General are also informative as to loan contraction, the giving of guarantees and debt management frailties.

In the 2005 report, it was pointed out at page 27 that the legislatively prescribed borrowing limit of 30 per centum of general revenues in the preceding year was exceeded by 38.11 per centum without the required parliamentary approval. In 2003 and 2004, there was an excess of 74 per centum and 79 per centum above the prescribed 30 per centum limit, all without parliamentary approval; this is stated in the 2004 Comptroller and Auditor-Generals report at pages 45 and 27 respectively.

There was also unauthorised borrowing such as that cited at page 308 of the Comptroller and Auditor-Generals 2005 report where it was noted that the National Civil Protection Fund borrowed $25 000 000 from the Central Rates Fund without the authority of the Minister of Finance, thereby violating section 30 of the Civil Protection Act.

Furthermore, there has been exceeding of the limit as regards guarantees that the state is entitled to issue. Page 53 of the 2004 report points out that in 2003, the guarantee limit was exceeded without parliamentary approval, the Comptroller and Auditor-Generals office points out its concern that this has been noted in preceding years.

As for the year 2004, it is pointed out at page 119 that there is no guarantees register; the effect of this is that it could not be ascertained whether or not all guarantees and commitments given by Government were fully disclosed. Thus the violation of the law was probably even greater. Page 32 of the 2005 Comptroller and Auditor-Generals report expresses the same concern as to the absence of a guarantees register, noting that this has been raised in previous reports;

Loans are given out by Ministries (a major question being who to?) and never recovered. In some cases there is no register of such loans maintained and the loans are never recovered. In some cases, the loan agreements cannot be found. Similar shortcomings exist as regards guarantees.

No accountability

These are all issues which cry out for investigation, criminal proceedings, rectification of the process of handling public finance within ministries and also for the State to seek the return of its funds so as to protect public finances and foster accountability in the handling of public finances.

In spite of the clear gravity of many of the matters mentioned above, no investigations and criminal proceedings have been brought in respect of these matters. Indeed, no one has ever been arrested or otherwise brought to justice on the basis of the reports by the Comptroller and Auditor-General. This abject failure to enforce the law has caused extreme prejudice to the nation.

It matters not which party has political power, the fact is that so long as enforcement of the law in such cases does not occur, Zimbabwes political, social and economic progress will be stalled. This will be a result of the bleeding of resources, but also of a culture of self-interest by those benefiting from such impunity which culture will utterly decimate any inclinations towards the national interest.

The very fact that the criminal justice system does not seem to apply to senior government officials and politicians surely signifies an absence of the rule of law.

One can understand why the office of the Comptroller and Auditor-General itself keeps a low profile. A reading of their reports will show that they contain what may be deemed to be, in light of Zimbabwes political environment, politically sensitive material. Indeed, it is a small office with tenuous legal protection which really requires strengthening and

maximum protection.

As regards some of the frailties noted above, some civil society groups have been making efforts to have these matters addressed e.g. the Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development has long fought for accountability as regards loan contraction and debt management processes and violation of these.

The problem seems to be that Zimbabweans have all too often had their attention absorbed in the highly visible electoral political maelstrom in Zimbabwe.

Parliament

If it means that there must be created an fiercely independent extension of the law enforcement agencies, then so be it. Further, surely there should be a legal requirement that the office of the Attorney-General acts in respect of this blatant theft of state resources.

Parliament itself should certainly do more in its oversight role to ensure that where there is theft and abuse of state resources, justice is done to protect such resources.

This abuses highlighted above are only portion of what arises out of only three annual reports it does not take into account the various other annual reports, as well as special reports on specific issues.

Over years and decades, we are annually advised how the persons who style themselves our representatives are abusing our money and yet somehow, it has yet to occur to us that the fact that they can do that with impunity is the reason why they can feel empowered to do anything else that they want to do with impunity.

Perhaps in resolving that lies the real key to unlocking the Zimbabwean political, social and economic crisis.