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ZIMBABWE now has full registry of its public debt after a laborious four-year validation process, the acting chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on Budget and Finance, Mr Eddie Cross has said.
Mr Cross said this during the Ministry of Finance’s Public Debt Management Office parliamentary committee’s public hearing meeting on the Public Debt Management Bill and Joint Ventures Bill last Saturday in Mutare.
The Public Debt Management Bill is meant to ensure transparency in accumulation of public debt, which taxpayers have to pay for.
Mr Cross’s response was a follow up to questions from the floor on whether the public debt was not individual debts.
“There is little information to the public on the national debt so the general perception out there is that Ministers have the highest loans, but now through this Public Debt Management Bill you are coming to us the tax payers.
“We want fairness and clarification. No one is really telling us where the money was put to use, so this should be addressed before we talk about managing the debt,” said one member of the public at the meeting.
Mr Cross responded that the information was on the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development website and issued Blue book published once a year during the time of the national budget presentation.
“Individual debts were validated and we now have a full registry of the public debt.
The validation process for the past four years has been a laborious process.
“We used external auditors Kudenga and Company so the doubt on individual debts can be stamped out,” said Mr Cross.
Mr Cross revealed that the private sector arrears were currently being serviced but Government’s $6,8 billion overdue external debt overhang was upsetting access to fresh lines of credit.
Mr Cross said Government’s domestic debt currently stands at $1,9 billion.
An official with the Ministry of Finance told a Parliamentary Committee on Budget and Finance, Mrs Martha Mugweni revealed that the private sector debt was estimated at $4 billion but the debt had not yet been validated, as happened with central Government’s $6,8 billion foreign debt.
Mrs Mugweni said that once the Bill has been passed into law, the legislation would set limits on the amount of loans that the Minister of Finance can decide to borrow.
She said the minister would be required to give reports to Parliament about public debt twice a year.
“Once the Bill has been passed into law, the minister will be reporting all the debts to Parliament and the public will be able to know how the borrowing was done,” she said.
The Mutare public hearing session was third of six meetings planned in the northern part of the country.
Mr Cross said the purpose was to get the views of the public on the new legislation and enter their views in a report to be submitted to Parliament.
Although the Mutare meeting was not well attended with barely 20 people, clarion calls were made on limiting the power of the minister in contracting public debt.
They said checks and balances were imperative to make the minister accountable to some authority, such as the public finance committee.
Some called a more stern punishment with a longer imprisonment term and not the six-months or penalty of a fine not exceeding level seven, in the Bill.
Calls were also made that provisions be incorporated in the new legislation to hold the Minister of Finance accountable even after they leave office citing the collapse of several parastatals with no punishment on perpetrators including line Ministers.
On the Joint Venture Bill, which seeks to establish a set of rules governing public-private procurement, people called for transparency to the public on build, operate and transfer deals.
Stakeholders also called for such public hearings to be taken to the people next time and not hotels where a few select people attend.
Online Reporter