A top government official has admitted to the finance ministry making dubious payments to different line ministries without parliament approval and non-compliance with the Public Finance Management Act.<\/p>\n
Government Accountant General Daniel Muchemwa was giving oral evidence before the Tendai Biti led Public Accounts portfolio committee.<\/p>\n
Referring to US$3.2 Billion paid to Command Agriculture in 2017 and 2018 agricultural season, Muchemwa admitted the ministry did not seek approval from parliament in disbursing the money to Sakunda Holdings and Grain Marketing Board (GMB).<\/p>\n
Muchemwa reported Monday that Sakunda Holdings and GMB were paid monies for services in the Agriculture sector for the programme introduced in 2016.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe erred in some of the transactions made and apologise for that. We promise not to repeat the same mistake,\u201d Muchemwa said.<\/p>\n
However, committee chair and former Finance Minister Biti was not convinced the apology was enough, further demanding to know, \u201cthe legal basis of the Finance Ministry in making the unapproved payments outside the public accounting system and also to name those who received the payments\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou are the parent ministry and why do you make direct payments to suppliers outside the line ministries and in this case, the lands ministry?\u201d Biti queried.<\/p>\n
Finance Ministry Chief Director, Expenditure Management Zvinechimwe Ruvinga Churu representing Permanent Secretary George Guvamatanga responded, \u201cIt is true. We are fully aware that whenever we desire to make payments that are outside the appropriated budget, it is important that we approach Parliament and come up with a supplementary budget within 60 days after spending that money for condonation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was no legal basis for making payments that were not approved by Parliament. There is no defence Sir. We erred in that regard,\u201d Churu responded.<\/p>\n
Last week, Lands ministry Perm Secretary Ringson Chitsiko told the same committee his ministry was not aware of the transactions made to suppliers by the Finance Ministry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A top government official has admitted to the finance ministry making dubious payments to different line ministries without parliament approval and non-compliance with the Public Finance Management Act. Government Accountant General Daniel Muchemwa was giving oral evidence before the Tendai Biti led Public Accounts portfolio committee. Referring to US$3.2 Billion paid to Command Agriculture in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":10559,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8,12],"tags":[117,458,266,752],"class_list":{"0":"post-12073","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-all-news","8":"category-head-lines","9":"category-policy","10":"tag-agriculture","11":"tag-biti","12":"tag-farm","13":"tag-usa"},"yoast_head":"\n