PARLIAMENT of ZImbabwe Speaker, Jacob Mudenda has urged members of the Southern African Development Community Organisation of Public Accounts Committees (SADCOPAC) to be vigilant in monitoring and managing public funds in the region.
Addressing SADCOPAC members from 16 countries in the bloc, Mudenda said it was critical for the members to fulfil and respect the wishes of the taxpayer, who is always looking for "value for money" in national budget management.
The Speaker was addressing SADCOPAC delegates, who are in Zimbabwe for a three-day capacity building seminar focusing on various issues, which include national budgets' best practices, public financial management (external and domestic) debts, borrowing, challenges as well as collaboration and oversight role, among other topics.
"Issues of public financial management are quite challenging because you are the national souls of national purses of our countries, and as the souls of national purses of our countries, those souls should not die.
"You must have some internal life in accounting of our countries; there must be internally some life or charged and in doing so it is our hope that during your training sessions, you will emphasize the 'Hallowed Virtue of Independence', not as an independent Member of Parliament, but the independence of scrutiny of how the public purse has been managed.
"As you monitor the management of the public purse, I think it is important to have the courage of your convictions; without that courage of your convictions in the society, failing that, you are failing our citizens because the public purse is a result of the taxpayer's money and the taxpayer, in all jurisdictions, looks forward to value for money," Mudenda said.
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The Speaker also highlighted that it was more than just passing the national budget, but the ultimate aim was to create the wellness and happiness of the citizens and to create wealth for economies.
"Our committees working together with the Auditor General (AG's) office as well as sister committee of Budget and Finance, are instructed that we must come up with ideas on how we can create wealth.
"The principle of investing is resource mobilization. That is critical. You have to look at the structure of our economies and the policies because you are not only looking at how money is spent but the policies that drive expenditure of the public purse, therefore, it is critical that you saw it fit to mount the capacity building programme of our members who are in the leadership of PACs."
Mudenda encouraged members to adapt to technologies in the current fourth industrial revolution.
"There is no substitute for continuous learning, and we are in the fourth industrial revolution for our use of digital technologies, including Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Mudenda's comments come as Zimbabwe's government departments, parastatals and local councils are mired in corruption storms that have allegedly drained millions of dollars.
Graft that includes financial illicit flows is one of main topics to be discussed by SADCOPAC members during the training session.
