The chairperson of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Chalton Hwende, said that they will summon the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion, George Guvamatanga, over his criticism of the Auditor-General’s report.
The 2023 report presented to Parliament by Auditor-General Rhea Kujinga exposed how the government had paid substantial sums of money for a range of items, including 97 vehicles and medical and ICT equipment, but the suppliers had failed to deliver these goods to various government ministries and departments.
In response, Guvamatanga criticised the Office of the Auditor General (OAG), saying the findings were misleading and suggesting that the report should have clarified that the government was taking action on the matter.
However, speaking in an interview with The Standard, Hwende characterised Guvamatanga’s comments as an attempt to “intimidate and undermine the Auditor General.” Said Hwende:
The attack on the OAG’s report by the permanent secretary is rather unfortunate and as a public accounts committee, we view it as an attempt to intimidate and interfere with the constitutional responsibility bestowed on the Office of the Auditor General.
We will soon be summoning him to Parliament so that he can appear before the committee. Parliament through our committee is seized with the 2023 Office of the Auditor General’s report and we must be allowed to perform our oversight role and ensure that public resources are properly accounted for.
Transparency International Zimbabwe executive director Tafadzwa Chikumbu said:
The secretary of Finance should respect the role of the auditor general as established by Section 310 of the constitution of Zimbabwe and the Audit Office Act [Chapter 22:18] which mandates the Office of the Auditor General to provide oversight and ensure accountability within the three arms of government, state-owned enterprises and local authorities.
As Transparency International, we value the role of supreme audit institutions in identifying corruption risks in the public sector.
Instead, the permanent secretary should work closely with the OAGs office to ensure that financial management systems are in place and being adhered to.
His utterances are quite concerning and worrying in view of the damning findings of the 2023 reports…
I concur that the public accounts commit to summon the secretary in there as Parliament to protect the constitution and safeguard public resources for the common good.
Speaking during a familiarisation tour of the Finance Ministry by the Budget and Finance Parliamentary Committee on Monday last week, Guvamatanga said the Auditor General’s office “misdirected itself” in its report. He said:
l can safely say that the auditor general misdirected themselves because, within the three pillars of control, those are regarded as issues known to management so l am not saying they should not have highlighted them but they should have mentioned them and say, government has discovered that there were undelivered vehicles.
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