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Nqobile Tshili, Chronicle Reporter
TREASURY has blasted senior officials from the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education for failing to claim budgeted funds, a development that has seen only 63 percent of funds allocated to the education sector in the 2019 budget being utilised.
An official with the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, Mrs Tendai Mukurazhizha, exposed the Education Ministry’s officials during a Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education 2020 strategic workshop in Bulawayo yesterday.
Heads of departments in the Education Ministry had blamed Treasury for failure to execute their mandate. However, Mrs Mukurazhizha shot back saying the Ministry was to blame for its failure to utilise budgeted funds.
She said Treasury is ready to disburse funds to the education sector and so far only 63 percent of the total budget has been claimed.
Mrs Mukurazhizha said failure to claim budgeted funds results in projects that were supposed to be completed this year unnecessarily overlapping into the coming year.
“I stand as your desk officer, allow me to use harsh words. I’m very disappointed by the way you are utilising your resources. You are all saying releases are not coming on time. I’m the one who deals with resources. On November 8, I communicated an envelope of $25 million and I was told that on the procurement of textbooks, there was a variation of tender and additional resources were required. We put in $15 million for that and another $10 million for all the other programmes. Today it’s the 25th of November but I have not released the money because I have not received the quotation to release those resources. So, when we say resources are not coming on time you are lying to each other wherever you are,” she said.
“In 2020 let’s work well together, I love education to the core. In December there is an envelope that is there but I cannot give it to you because the other one has not been used. It seems there is no capacity to utilise resources in the Ministry which is not correct because you have all these programmes that you are talking about.” —@nqotshili
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