Parliament Speaker Calls On Parliamentarians To Give Honest Advice To The Executive

By Lloyd Mwale in Kadoma

The Speaker of Parliament,Hon Jacob Mudenda has called on parliamentarians in the Public Accounts and Budget, Finance  and Investment Promotion Committees to give honest advice and to be persuasive before the Executive in matters of national budget, finance and public accounts management.

Hon Mudenda was speaking at a three-day induction workshop for Members of Parliament in the Budget and Public Accounts Committees at Kadoma Rainbow Hotel recently.

“This induction workshop will capacitate you with information on the economy. The Budget, Finance and Investment Promotion Committee plays a crucial role in ensuring complementarity of monitoring and fiscal policy which must find congruence in their applications to this,” Mudenda said.

“I urge the committee to be on the lookout for policy inconsistencies in order to forestall policy contradictions. There also is a need for the committee to engage the Tripartite Negotiating Forum (TNF), which is now a statutory body of the government, so as to quickly ameliorate economic policy inconsistencies in order to harmonize fiscus and monetary policies.

“This is a big assignment for the two committees present while the Ministry of Finance and Investment Promotion is waiting for proceeds from taxation which is not forthcoming, there is a cure to taxation and it’s up to you the Budget, Finance and Investment Promotion and Public Accounts Committees to offer honest advice after looking at various examples from other countries how they are doing or how they overcome the burden of taxation and  you have to be persuasive in your interaction with the Executive, your roles shows that your committees are critical,” said Hon Mudenda.

The Parliament Speaker also called on parliamentarians to be abreast with the country’s constitution so that they understand it and apply its meaning according to their oversight role.

“No taxes must be levied except under the authority of the constitution or an act of parliament, so I call you, not to read the constitution superficially but read to understand its meaning so that you’re able to apply it according to your oversight responsibilities and to you the Budget Finance and Investment Promotion Committee, you must always be on the lookout for a degree of compliance of financial management principles by the Executive in its implementation  of national budgetary process while the Public Accounts Committee you must be seized with analysing the auditor’s reports in order to assess to what extend the audits have been guided, by how the Executive has adhered to the principles of financial management let alone expose these financial malfeasances but while this is a tall order for both parliament portfolio committees so due diligence must be executed by all committees expeditiously. Parliamentary oversight of state expenditure demands critical applications by all selected committees in the parliament,” said the Speaker of Parliament, Hon Mudenda.

Budget Finance and Investment Promotion Portfolio Committee Chairperson, Hon Clemence Chiduwa (MP Zaka South) welcomed the induction workshop for parliamentarians as an eye opener.

“The Induction workshop covered the understanding of the budgetary process, as budgetary process looks at how inclusive will be the budget and as the Chairperson of the Budget Committee we want to ensure that we will have a citizenry budget so that the budget is in line with the country’s developmental agenda and to adhere to the constitution,” said Hon Chiduwa.

Hon Chiduwa called on the Executive to speed up the alignments between the 2009 Public Finance Act and the 2013 Constitution.

“We’ve seen that there is a gap between the 2009 Public Finance Act and the 2013 Constitution and there is a need for the Executive to bring amendment to the parliament.”