Farirai Machivenyika in BULAWAYO
SPEAKER of the National Assembly Advocate Jacob Mudenda has warned that underperforming Parliamentary Portfolio and Thematic Committees would be reshuffled for failing to deliver on their oversight roles.
Adv Mudenda said the Committee on Standing Rules and Orders could soon meet to consider changes to committees that had failed to produce expected results.
He was speaking during Parliament’s ongoing Pre-Budget Seminar in Bulawayo, where he stressed the need for parliamentary committees to be more effective in holding public institutions accountable.
“We have not yet reshuffled the committees. I think it is high time now. Those committees that don’t give us results, they will need to be reshuffled,” Adv Mudenda said.
He also called for decisive action against some executives at public health institutions where medicines distributed by the National Pharmaceutical Company (NatPharm) were disappearing under their watch.
It was unacceptable, he said, for provincial hospitals to run out of medicines shortly after receiving supplies.
“NatPharm distributes medicines to provincial hospitals. After two weeks, the medicines have disappeared. If the chief executive of that provincial hospital still remains in place, it is high time Parliament must ask for dismissal of such chief executive,” he said.
Adv Mudenda said the disappearance of medicines was undermining the value of Government expenditure on healthcare, exposing public institutions to ridicule despite the resources committed to procuring and distributing the drugs.
He challenged Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Health to strengthen its oversight role and ensure that those responsible for the loss of medicines were held accountable.
“The Health Committee must have teeth to deal with such situations,” he said.
