Editorial Comment: Curb abuse of public funds

the scourge can eat away what has taken generations to build.
It is of even greater concern when those entrusted with the responsibility to play the oversight role join the bandwagon and dip their fingers into the till the toiling taxpayer has been painfully feeding and jealously guarding.
Our legislators are facing accusations that they are disguising donor-funded projects in their constituencies as theirs in a bid to hoodwink Government auditors who are hot on their trail. 
Secretary for Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs Mrs Virginia Mabhiza has expressed concern that the Government was losing a lot of money as auditors were being sent on wild goose chases through the conduct of “unfaithful” House of Assembly Members.
The issue of the abuse of the Constituency Development Fund has been dragging for long and we believe the investigations should be concluded speedily and the guilty punished so that they serve as an example to other like-minded individuals.
Cases of MPs before the courts have stalled and had to be withdrawn before plea for want of evidence since investigations are yet to be completed. Dishonesty by members of the august house can never be tolerated since as lawmakers they expect citizens to abide by the laws they produce, and the same is expected of them.
We feel that thousands of dollars could have been diverted to personal use and that some of the MPs would be able to escape the long arm of the law, given the ample time they have been given to even tamper with information to cover their tracks. The delay in bringing finality to the CDF investigations could eventually amount to an opportunity lost to serve the ends of justice.
Mrs Mabhiza shares this concern.
“We are witnessing high levels of desperation where you see a lot of MPs attempting to show our auditors some projects funded by donors and other development partners as a way of shielding misuse of funds,” she said.
It is our hope that non-governmental organisations working in different areas have regularised their operations and declared their projects to local government structures so that their good work in different constituencies is not exploited by the MPs to hide their acts of commission. 
Also, those MPs who abused public money would do well to return the money to the relevant accounts to show their contrition, otherwise the populace will vent their anger against them in the next election.
With only 134 constituencies audited so far out of 210, it could take us until next year before we get the full story of what happened to taxpayers’ money that was meant to improve the livelihood of the common man.
Our representatives have turned against the people they purport to represent and this calls for some soul-searching among the voters and even the parties that deployed these representatives. 
We also believe it is not all MPs that have been caught up in the CDF scandal, though if proper acquittals were done much of the publicity on abuse of funds could have been avoided.
It is also our hope that legislation to deal with such acts by MPs would be passed quickly in Parliament in the same manner that issues to do with the MPs’ welfare are dealt with. Of interest also is that those who assist MPs to misappropriate funds would also be held accountable and face a similar jail term under the proposed law. 
Useful lessons should be drawn from the CDF by policymakers so that Community Share Ownership Schemes are captured in the new law lest we put the cart before the horse yet again.
Let us inculcate a moral obligation to safeguard our national purse, legislative teeth to bite offenders and political will to enforce policies that curb the cancer of corruption.