Chronicle Editor
PERMANENT Secretary in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development Mr George Guvamatanga says Treasury is undertaking an audit to ascertain the Government’s debt.
Mr Guvamatanga was quoted by African News Agency disclosing this on Monday when he appeared before Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, which sought an explanation as to why his Ministry had not gazetted loans contracted by the Government.
Mr Guvamatanga said non-compliance to the Public Debt Management Act and Public Finance Management Act, which compel Treasury to disclose unbudgeted expenditure and debt contraction to Parliament, was caused by a “systematic failure in the whole chain of Government.”
“The review is still going on so as to establish the purpose and use of the debt and will be presented to Parliament,” he was quoted as saying.
According to data from Treasury, the country’s public debt was in the region of $17 billion, as of August last year.
Mr Guvamatanga said his ministry was still gathering information on the foreign debt and further said it had a comprehensive report on the domestic debt, which would be submitted to Parliament soon.
Committee member Mr Willias Madzimure asked if the ministry had a schedule of debts and also why there was a variance of the country’s debt figures in the blue book and the budget statement.
The blue book put total public debt at $9,2 billion, while the budget statement has a figure of $17,6 billion.
Another committee member Mr Zenzo Sibanda asked if the Finance Ministry had set borrowing limits for local authorities.
“When borrowing is done, due diligence is done and we do that in consultation with the Local Government Ministry. What was not set was the limit, but Local Government does not borrow without consulting the Finance Ministry,” responded Mr Guvamatanga.
“All those recommend-ations should come through. Non-compliance was due to systematic failure in government,” he said.
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