By Elishamai A Ziumbwa
Marondera Central legislator Caston Matewu has accused four government ministries of breaching financial transparency laws by failing to submit mandatory financial statements warning that Parliament will ramp up scrutiny until all public funds are properly accounted for.
Speaking in Parliament, Matewu said the ministries were in violation of the Public Finance Management Act which requires accounting officers to produce annual financial statements for audit by the Auditor-General.
He also cited Section 119 of the Constitution which empowers Parliament to oversee all state revenue and expenditure.
“The four ministries we called had not submitted their financial statements. We cannot allow government entities to collect money and fail to account for it,” Matewu said.
The lawmaker raised particular concern over the Ministry of Youth, accusing it of mismanaging the Youth Fund which draws revenue from 60 vocational training centres nationwide.
He revealed the fund had failed to submit financial statements for the past three years.
“We were told today that in some centres, cooks were the ones collecting money and cooking the books,” Matewu said.
According to Matewu, the last audited accounts from the fund were submitted in 2020 and received a disclaimer of opinion the worst possible audit outcome meaning the Auditor-General could not form any conclusion on the state of the accounts.
He warned that Parliament would summon the Ministries again to provide full financial records, insisting that excuses such as staff shortages or the arrest of an accountant would not absolve officials of responsibility.
“We are going to do our job and ensure every dollar is accounted for,” he said.
