Speaker for empowered Public Accounts Committee
The Speaker of Parliament Catherine Gotani Hara has asked for intensified training of Public Accounts Committee members to ensure prudent oversight of government expenditure.
She said this on Thursday in Lilongwe when opening the 17th Annual General Meeting of the Southern African Development Community Organisation of Public Accounts Committees (Sadcopac).
Gotani Hara said lack of financial management knowledge is deterring effective roles of the committee.
She said citizens place high expectations on Parliament to ensure that every kwacha in the national budget is used accordingly.
Said Gotani Hara: “PAC is constitutionally mandated as a watchdog to provide oversight and accountability of taxpayers’ money. Unfortunately, it is not doing enough as expected because members of Parliament are not familiar with pertinent knowledge of how to track and deal with mismanagement of public funds.”
“There is a strong need for capacity building because failure to enrich PAC with adequate training compromises the process of providing checks and balance.”
Sadcopac vice-chairperson Sibusiso Nxumalo, who is also eSwatini’s Parliamentary Public Account Committee’s vice-chairperson, admitted that challenges are similar across Sadc region.
However, he expressed confidence that the meeting will enhance accountability in their respective governments.
Nxumalo said: “We are lacking that strong bite that can help us manage diligent accountability of public funds. It is important that we come together as regional public accounts committees because if expenditure of taxpayers is unaccounted for, this affects delivery of public services.”
“It is a common trait in the Sadc region that some projects are done twice, some are never completed and in some cases there is late delivery of services yet the money is already allocated in our respective national budgets.”
This year’s meeting brought together delegates from Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Tanzania, South Africa, Botswana and eSwatini.
The inaugural general meeting took place in 2004 in Tanzania but Malawi first hosted it in 2008.
