‘Accountability key to economic revival’
PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa has said his government has strengthened the Money Laundering and Proceeds of Crime Act to ensure that no one self-enriches from the proceeds of crime.
Delivering his keynote address at the Chartered Governance and Accountancy Institute in Zimbabwe’s 50th anniversary and annual conference in Victoria Falls recently, Mnangagwa said transparency and accountability were key to the country’s economic revival.
He said application of corporate governance principles enshrined in the available statutes and other legal instruments would enable viability of all public sector entities.
“We have witnessed high-profile individuals standing trials and unexplained and ill-gotten wealth being sequestrated,” Mnangagwa said.
“In 2019, we enacted the Public Entities Corporate Governance Act to provide a legal foundation for oversight and governance of Stateowned entities and parastatals including better management of fiscal risk, performance and service delivery, and accountability.
“You will agree with me that if we are to apply the corporate governance principles enshrined in this and other legal instruments, all our public sector entities will become viable, efficient and positively contribute to our economic development.”
Zimbabwe has been recording a rise in corruption cases involving public officials and although Mnangagwa has vowed to stamp out the vice, observers question his sincerity, with the majority of his top allies implicated in graft still to be brought to book.
The institute has established working memoranda with the Zimbabwe Republic Police to train its police force in forensic accounting, auditing and cyber security.
The Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission is also part of the programme.
These collaborations, Mnangagwa said, would obviously strengthen and help public institutions to capacitate and enable government to deliver on its mandate.
“Our Constitution created the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission and I must say that the chairperson (Loyce Matanda-Moyo) here and her team are doing very well in combating corruption,” he said.
“Corruption is a severe impediment to sustainable economic, political, and social progress of our country. This underscores the importance of intensifying efforts to improve governance frameworks and strengthen actions to improve the prevention, detection, and sanctioning of corruption. Any effort to fight corruption requires a holistic and co-ordinated approach.”
The annual conference ran under the theme “Reset. Reignite. Refocus; Towards 2030: Governance and Accounting Professionals Challenged”.