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{
    "id": 900039,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/900039/?format=api",
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    "content": "of Parliament, we shall again be tabling a report on the Financial Year 2016/2017 and, hopefully, early next session, we should be tabling the report on Financial Year 2017/2018. That should ensure that the national revenues are equitably shared in accordance with the Constitution and, again, according to the latest audited reports of the Auditor-General as approved by this House. I want to also emphasise that there is need for some semblance of continuity in the offices of the accounting officers we deal with from time to time. We have had to contend with a very high turnover of accounting officers, particularly principal secretaries. This creates a situation where you find that the current accounting officer who is called to appear before us is unable and, sometimes, unwilling to respond adequately to audit queries pertaining to a period when there was a different substantive accounting officer. I plead with the appointing authority to, at least, try and ensure that accounting officers, once they begin a financial year, are left to conclude it so that when the time comes, we can be able to interrogate them. In fact, as a Committee, where there are adverse issues in the Auditor- General’s Report, even if the accounting officer who was in office then is no longer in office, we have insisted that we shall be demanding that they be called to shed more light particularly in view of the fact that the current accounting officer may not be able to do so satisfactorily. In the course of our examination of these financial statements, we came across a tendency by accounting officers to abuse the provisions of the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act, particularly when it came to the idea of direct procurement and/or restricted tendering. That particular legislation is very clear on circumstances under which a procuring entity can resort to the practice of direct procurement or restricted tendering. We found out that the accounting officers were resorting to these two methods of procurement with careless abandon - in fact, as a default. We have been very clear in our Report and have recommended sanctions against such accounting officers. Article 227 of the Constitution is very clear that the method of procurement should be transparent, fair and open as much as possible. Therefore, by continuing to violate these provisions of the law and the Constitution, some of the accounting officers are, in effect, entrenching impunity which this House needs to deal with decisively by first adopting our Report and then by following it through the support of the Committee on Implementation. There was also a worrying trend of accounting officers failing to produce supporting documents. You could find this in almost every entity. In some instances, those supporting documents were missing and were eventually produced at the tail-end of our examination of those accounts. Suffice it to add, as a Committee, it is not our work to examine such documents. That is the work of the Auditor-General. Therefore, it is incumbent upon every accounting officer to ensure that they avail all supporting documents at the correct time when they are demanded by the Office of the Auditor-General. What was interesting is that those documents would be missing and then eventually they would resurface. That tells you that they were deliberately hidden from the Auditor-General with a view to ensuring those issues were not interrogated conclusively. We have also raised those issues. There was also the tendency by accounting officers to reallocate funds from one budget line to another. The law is very clear. The Public Finance Management (PFM) Act is very clear that for such reallocation to happen, authority must be sought from the National Treasury. You must seek that authority and ensure you get it before you attempt to do such reallocation. We The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}