SERAME BEMOANS CORRUPTION IN SADC
Finance Minister, Peggy Serame has bemoaned challenges haunting public finance management on the SADC bloc. Speaking at the 14th Annual Conference and 18th Annual General Meeting of the Southern Africa Development Community Organisation of Public Accounts Committees (SADCOPAC), Serame said the challenges are wide and vary. “Although part of the revenues collected in African countries actually go to the public in the form of public goods and services, much of the revenue gets lost to spending on poorly conceived, poorly planned and poorly prepared projects (white elephant), corruption, and general waste,” said Serame. She further said recent increases in governments’ debt have raised concerns about a lack of transparency and accountability in some of countries’ borrowings, resulting in sub-optimal public sector financial management and sustainability. “It is therefore critical that public financial management reforms should be seen as a continuum that is necessary to meet new challenges, resulting from increased economic development and rising civic expectations,” said Serame. She said public financial management reform opportunities lie in change of laws, regulations and accounting policies that are necessary for PFM transformation and success, citing that the changes should be supported by clear interpretation and articulation of accounting policies by all concerned, training and development at all levels, changes in management procedures and timeliness of reporting accuracy at all levels. However, the Minister lamented that reforming public sector institutions in terms of structures, policies, processes and practices is often difficult, as focus is always on achieving efficient resource allocation, particularly in resource constrained environments. “There are also problems of lack of robust leadership and political support, staff shortages, training and retention, poor reward systems and the lack of strong public financial management infrastructure.”