admina Government official has said.
Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs secretary Mrs Virginia Mabhiza yesterday said the Bill, if passed, would enable Government to nail legislators who abused the money allocated to them under the CDF.
She said the Bill would be tabled before the Cabinet committee on legislation soon.
“We are moving in to plug the gaps that existed in the handling of the fund and our stakeholders who include the Ministry of Finance, the Attorney General’s Office and the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General have given us their input, making the Bill ready to go to Cabinet,” she said.
“We are now waiting for the minister to take the principles to the Cabinet committee on legislation for us to be able to punish legislators who loot or have looted CDF. The Bill will provide for mechanisms to enhance accountability of the money.”
Government has failed to prosecute Members of the House of Assembly who abused the funds as there was no law spelling out penalties.
If the Bill sails through, legislators who looted the CDF face a jail term of up to five years while those who assist in the misappropriation of the funds would also be held accountable and face a similar jail term.
Mrs Mabhiza said those who abused CDF would still be prosecuted even if the life of the current Parliament expires on June 29.
“We have stated that vacation of public office does not exonerate one from his or her mischief,” she said.
“With elections pending, it does not mean that all of them will go. If those who abused the funds allocated to them leave office, we will hunt for them so that they account for the public funds they were given as long as they are alive.”
The CDF was being dealt with under the Public Finance Management Act, making it impossible for Government to jail its abusers.
As a result, Government had to revert to the Criminal Law and Codification Reform Act, a weaker legal statute.
Mrs Mabhiza said the auditing of constituencies was ongoing and the teams were in Masvingo this week.
“They are covering the 16 outstanding constituencies in Masvingo and we hope they would have completed by the third week of this month,” she said.
“From there we will move on to the 34 constituencies scattered around the Mashonaland provinces and if funds trickle in we would be done soon.”
Many legislators have come under fire for abusing the US$50 000 given to them by Treasury for constituency development and some even disguised donor-funded projects in their constituencies in a desperate bid to cover up for the abuse.
In some instances, the MPs were sending auditors on a “wild goose chase”. Four MPs, Albert Mhlanga (MDC-T Pumula), Marvellous Khumalo (MDC-T St Mary’s), Cleopas Machacha (MDC-T Kariba) and Franco Ndambakuwa (Zanu-PF) Magunje), were last year arrested by the Anti-Corruption Commission and appeared in court.
Charges against Ndambakuwa and Mhlanga were withdrawn before plea and the State will proceed by way of summons when the dockets are ready.
Cases against Machacha and Khumalo are still pending.
Mrs Mabhiza said legislators who abused the CDF would be charged under the new law.
“No one who abused the funds long back will escape because it’s not like we are charging them with a law that was repealed but these are ordinary offences like theft or fraud and they should be answerable,” she said.
Online Reporter