Story by Tichaona Kurewa
PARLIAMENTARY Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has warned that officials from public entities failing to meet the statutory deadline for financial reporting will be prohibited from signing performance contracts.
PAC revealed this recommendation in Victoria Falls after meeting Hwange Rural District Council (HRDC) and the National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ).
The two entities appeared before Parliament to respond to issues that were raised by the Auditor General.
PAC Chairperson, Honourable Charlton Hwende, made it clear that the era of leniency for public entity officials neglecting their duties is over.
“Like what we have already decided as a committee is that with every entity that fails to meet the statutory, the constitutional deadline of February 20, we will then be engaging the Office of the President, as every Accounting Officer is now signing a performance contract with the government, and a failure to audit should be a very serious offence that must affect your ability to sign your next contract. So we have already resolved for all entities, for all ministries, we need to ensure that every entity submits their financial statement on time, because the problem that we have, we have entities that are still yet to submit 2015 financials, and the net effect is that when they delay, they then prevent Parliament from performing its oversight. Because once you start talking about issues that happened in 2015 and we are in 2025, 10 years later, that means that whatever recommendations that we are going to make, they are not going to be of any consequence. So we want to make sure that all entities are up to date, so that when the Public Accounts Committee examines the Auditor General’s report, we are dealing with current issues so that we can then make recommendations that strengthen the public finance management system in the country,” PAC Chairperson said.
PAC expressed discontent with HRDC and NRZ over their failure to adhere to best accounting and corporate governance standards.
“Hwange, the rural district council, appeared before Parliament to answer into issues that were raised by the Auditor General and we wanted to verify what was on the ground, but what we saw yesterday was very shocking. The most crucial issue is that Hwange Rural District Council is refusing to sign off the audited statements from the Auditor General. Because after the auditing process, the entity that has been audited is supposed to sign, but they are refusing. That is why we came here to see why they are refusing, because it is an anomaly on our part, because you will agree and you might not agree with some of the issues after an audit, but as the Accounting Officer, you need to do the right thing. Some of the issues are of public knowledge, the inability of NRZ to account for all their assets. They have a lot of assets, some assets are not under their control, and a good example is what we have seen here, where since 1998 they have a joint venture where we are standing here. This is supposed to be a joint company between Landela and NRZ. But as we have heard from their presentation, NRZ claims that they have not received a single cent from 1998 until today. It is a thriving business complex. People are paying rentals every month. Surely the company is supposed to be making money,” Honourable Hwende said.
This move by the PAC signals a heightened level of scrutiny and a determination to enforce financial accountability across government departments and parastatals in line with government’s vision to end corruption and bad corporate governance.
A Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is a parliamentary committee that scrutinises government spending and holds public officials accountable for their financial decisions. Its primary role is to ensure transparency, accountability, and honesty in government financial operations.
