MATIBINI

By CHUSA SICHONE-
SPEAKER of the National Assembly, Patrick Matibini is optimistic that public resources in the Southern African region will properly be utilised if the Southern African Development Community Organisation of
Public Accounts Committees (SADCOPAC) plays a leading role.
Speaking at the official opening of the eleventh SADCOPAC annual conference and general meeting in Lusaka yesterday, Dr Matibini said Zambia and other countries in the SADC region continued losing huge sums of public resources owing to weak public procurement systems.
Dr Matibini said procurement in most countries faced a lot of challenges such as corruption, lack of or weak enforcement provisions in the legal and regulatory framework and a lack of capacity by citizens to effectively participate in monitoring the procurement process.
He said parliamentary oversight through Public Accounts Committees (PACs) undoubtedly could assist in providing the necessary checks and balances that were essential to ensuring transparency and accountability, as they played a critical watchdog role in curbing malpractices in the public procurement systems.
“Effective oversight by Public Accounts Committees ensures the integrity, accountability and transparency of the public procurement system by enhancing their oversight role. Public Accounts Committees can and should identify the gaps in the public procurement system and contrive remedial measures.
“I have no doubt in my mind that with SADCOPAC taking a leading role in promoting the sharing of best practices amongst parliamentarians, the region has a potential to effectively contribute towards ensuring that public resources are fully accounted for in order to foster and accelerate development of the continent,” he said.
Dr Matibini said PACs in the SADC region had over the years garnered considerable experience in the area of public financial management which placed them in a good position to attain the aforementioned goal.
He said public procurement was a crucial issue in any development agenda and that in Zambia it accounted for 10 to 15 per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) but that the country’s public procurement system still faced challenges.
The Speaker attributed the challenges in Zambia’s procurement process to non or weak enforcement of the provisions of the Public Procurement Act No 12 of 2008 and the Public Procurement Regulations of 2011.
Dr Matibini was, however, happy that the office of the Auditor General exercised oversight over public procurement and had been doing a commendable job but that its revelations made sad reading, adding that it was disheartening that the PAC recommendations remained outstanding.
SADCOPAC chairperson Hlomani Chauke called for a paradigm shift in the manner the PACs did their work and that a PAC could only be effective if the executive implemented the recommendations by the committee and the Auditor General, as that gave credibility to the Government and promoted accountability.
Zambia’s PAC chairperson Vincent Mwale said abuse of resources arising from public procurement had been exacerbated by the long and bureaucratic procedures.