By Wezzi Gausi:
Secretary to the Treasury Betchani Tchereni has warned officials in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs against sitting on funding requests from ministries, department and agencies (MDAs), saying the tendency is tainting the image of government.
This comes as MDAs have been complaining over delayed payments from the Treasury.
In an internal memo addressed to the Accountant General, the Principal Secretary Economic Affairs, the Budget Director and Director of Revenue, among other senior officials, Tchereni says as much as he appreciates that they all have busy schedules, they cannot fail to respond to communication, let alone fail to act on requests from the MDAs.
“I wonder, for example, why it should take more than a week before any matter is decisively decided upon. It is, therefore, expected that in no more than 48 hours from the time any communication is received, an action or update regarding an impending action will have been provided,” Tchereni said.
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Centre for Social Accountability and Transparency (Csat) Executive Director Willy Kambwandira said the ST should move beyond issuing such communications, as people need to see administrative sanctions placed against public officers who deliberately delay processing of payments, which creates fertile ground for corruption.
He said in the absence of such actions, one would treat his communication as public perception management amid speculation that public coffers have run dry.
“Treasury must address real issues that affect delays in processing the payment such as full migration to the Ifmis instead of clinging to the manual system of processing the payment. We know there is resistance within the civil service to migrate to the Ifmis. People are deliberately frustrating the process to benefit from it,” Kambwandira said.
Recently, the National Registration Bureau told reporters that Treasury’s delays to release payments for registration exercises was chocking the exercise.
