Story by Mhlomuli Ncube, Assistant News Editor
MEMBERS of Parliament are undergoing specialised training in Bulawayo to strengthen their financial literacy and budget analysis skills, enhancing their oversight role in the national fiscal process.
The capacity-building workshop is equipping legislators with the expertise to interpret, scrutinise and provide effective oversight of the National Budget.
Addressing the workshop, Speaker of the National Assembly, Advocate Jacob Mudenda, urged legislators to continuously strengthen their knowledge to effectively discharge their constitutional responsibilities.
“Central to fulfilling your constitutional obligation… is the capacity to conduct clinical Budget analysis. This demands that you interrogate the spending framework through the lens of fiscal incidence… with particular attention to the poor, women, children and persons living with disabilities,” he said.
Advocate Mudenda said rigorous budget scrutiny should produce evidence-based findings that enable parliamentary committees to engage meaningfully in the budget process and promote socially equitable outcomes.
He stressed that Parliament’s oversight role must ultimately benefit the people of Zimbabwe.
“Fulfilling this sacrosanct responsibility compels you to move beyond a perfunctory examination to a penetrating, forensic analysis of the National Budget across every dimension,” he said.
Quoting a well-known African proverb, Advocate Mudenda added: “Until the lion learns to write, every story will glorify the hunter,” urging legislators to take greater ownership of the national budget process rather than remain passive recipients of fiscal decisions that directly affect citizens.
Five parliamentary portfolio committees with direct responsibility for national budget analysis are participating in the capacity-building programme.
