Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chaired by MDC vice president Tendai Biti has given three Finance ministry officials an ultimatum to appear before it on Friday, November 15 or face arrest for contempt of Parliament.
The three officials are the ministry’s director of budgets Zvinechimwe Churu, director of capital expenditure Fidelis Ngorora and the accountant-general. Speaking to reporters on Monday after the officials’ latest snub, Biti said:
We regret and are saddened to note that they have defaulted on our request for them to attend this meeting. We are also saddened by the continuous disrespect of Parliament so we are giving the ministry of Finance one last chance before we direct the clerk of Parliament to issue a warrant of arrest in terms of the Parliamentary Privileges Act.
Biti revealed that the officials failed to turn up in the first instance saying that they had been attending a workshop and on the second occasion they said they were not aware that they were supposed to appear before Parliament.
PAC expects the officials to explain the contents of the documents in connection with how over $3 billion received from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) by the ministry was used without Parliament’s approval.