Report on Public accounts exposes gvt

By Kudakwashe Vhenge
Investigations by the Auditor-General and Parliament’s Committee on Public Accounts have revealed that Government’s finances have been mismanaged over the past few years.
The report revealed that government has varying expenditure which are US$ 25 305 741 In 2015, US $1 490 889 787 in 2016, US $4 562 064 124 in 2017 and US $3 560 343 130 in 2018.
The Government has since admitted that it spent all this money without authority from the parliament as required by the law.
The law states that if government ministry or department spends more money in any financial year in excess amount of the amount appropriated, the Finance Minister is required in terms of section 307 of the Constitution to cause a bill to condoning the unauthorized expenditure.
In this respect, the Ministry of Finance published a Financial Adjustment Bill seeking condemnation for the unlawful expenditure.
Much of government’s expenditure have been attributed to the Agriculture, Mechanization & Irrigation which exceeded a total amount of US $5 207 206 289 for the time under review.
According to recent reports, government expenditure on agriculture reached a total of 1.1 billion as at August 2018against an annual budget target of $401. Of this, US$238 million went towards command agriculture, $263 million towards vulnerable input support scheme and $505 million towards grain procurement.
Other ministries which galloped larger sums of money included Energy and Power Development, Defense, Security and War Veterans, Mines and Mining Development, Office of the President and Cabinet among others.
It however remains doubtful if Parliament in its currently polarized will adequately interrogate how the government’s public accounting system allows misspending to occur on such a huge scale.