FIRE ERRING OFFICERS, PAC URGES STATE
THE Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has recommended that all officers cited in the 2016 Auditor General’s report for misappropriation of public funds must be fired as a way of sending an early warning before reviewing the Public Finance Act.
Committee member, Mwansa Mbulakulima who is also Milenge Patriotic Front (PF) member of Parliament, told the sitting yesterday that under the Public Finance Act, controlling officers had authority to dismiss officers for misappropriation of public funds.
He told Secretary to the Treasury, Fredson Yamba, who appeared before PAC for interrogation that the general public expected all officers cited for misappropriation to be fired as established under the Public Finance Act.
Mr Mbulakulima advised Mr Yamba not to wait for the Public Finance Act to be reviewed but to send early warning by dismissing erring officers while waiting for other punitive measures that would be established for offenders.
And Committee Howard Kunda, who is MMD Serenje MP, said there was no need to wait for the Public Finance Act to be reviewed because in its current form, controlling officers had powers to dismiss officers for misappropriation of public funds.
He said section 30 of the Public Finance Act gave controlling officers powers in terms of dealing with non performing officers.
Mr Kunda advised Mr Yamba to immediately deal with concerns raised by the committee as soon as possible.
He said the committee was concerned with the laxity to deal with theft, misapplication and misappropriation exposed by the Auditor General.
“We want to see a situation where these matters are dealt with,” Mr Kunda said.
In his response, Mr Yamba said previously some officers had been dismissed for misappropriation of public funds.
He also supported calls by Finance Minister Felix Mutati that everyone cited in the Auditor Genera’s reportl should be prosecuted and sentenced to prison after review of the Public Finance Act.
Meanwhile, Mr Yamba and Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) commissioner general Kingsley Chanda were taken to task to explain how motor vehicles brought in the country on customs import permit (CIP) were later on introduced on the Asycuda Word as Ex-GRZ vehicles which saw the authority losing K149, 811 tax.
Earlier, Mr Yamba who was accompanied by the ZRA chief justified why ZRA domestic tax arrears had risen from K24, 430, 802, 916 in 2015 to K28, 225, 582, 972 in 2016 representing 15.5 percent increase.
According to Mr Chanda, 2016 was a bad year for Zambia’s economy because the copper price went down on the London Metal Exchange forcing government to reduce the mineral royal tax from 20 percent to 6 percent.
He said the Kwacha depreciated to about K15 per United States Dollar.
Mr Chanda said because of various negative economic indicators, ZRA’s domestic tax arears increased despite significant efforts by the authority.
He said ZRA had not received any feedback from RTSA on eight smuggled vehicles cited in the Auditor General’s report.