By Jonah Pankuku:
The Public Accounts Committee of Parliament (Pac) has come under criticism for its alleged failure to conclude interrogating Secretary to the President and Cabinet (SPC) Colleen Zamba over some unresolved audit queries and general maladministration in the civil service.
On June 11 this year, Pac cancelled its planned meeting with Zamba due to the plane crash that killed nine people including vice president Saulos Chilima a day before.
Almost six months down the line, the two sides have not met prompting local accountability groups to allege that Pac is either helpless, captured or fails to understand its critical mandate.
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Centre for Social Accountability and Transparency (Csat) Executive Director Willy Kambwandira described the prolonged delays as worrisome and a clear sign of sheer impunity.
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“The SPC believes she is immune to accountability, and this situation puts into question the oversight role of Parliament. It is unfortunate that Parliament appears helpless over this matter.
“We all know that Parliament has powers to sanction the SPC, and let them use relevant Parliamentary laws to subpoena the SPC.
“Otherwise, Parliament’s inaction on this matter confirms that either our Parliament is captured or not aware of their mandate and responsibility,” Kambwandira said.
Centre for Democracy and Economic Development Initiatives (Cdedi) also wondered why Pac was still struggling to hold the SPC accountable despite several allegations implicating her in the management of the civil service which she heads.
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Cdedi Executive Director, Sylvester Namiwa, said Zamba should avoid dragging the office of the President into disrepute by being ready to account for developments in the civil service.
“This reminds me of one of the issues raised in the Pastoral Letter of the Catholic Bishops. They raised a pertinent question: ‘Who is in control of this government?’
“Ordinarily, Zamba’s conduct is creating the impression that she is above the law,” Namiwa said.
However, Pac Chairperson Mark Botoman rubbished those who think the committee is treating Zamba with kid gloves for fear of “serious political repercussions”.
“Those assertions are coming from critics who do not understand the mandate of Pac. As far as we are concerned, we have taken the SPC to task on many critical issues and results are there for all to see.
“You may wish to know that in 2023, she was summoned by seven parliamentary committees on various issues but she only appeared before Pac, and she did that twice (in May and in October). This cannot be a mean achievement on the part of my committee. We will continue to hold government to account in respect of Public Finance Management Act and all other relevant laws,” Botoman explained.
He added his committee clerk has been following up with the SPC’s office to reschedule the meeting but they are yet to get positive feedback.
Botoman added: “When I met the SPC last month, she promised to come back to me before the end of the year.”
“Furthermore, the committee wants to follow up on actions that have thus far been taken on the Covid-19 audit report which was done by the Auditor General,” Botoman said.
In a written response, OPC’s Communications Officer Robert Kalindiza said the two offices are in discussion to set a new date for a meeting to dispose of the three queries for the year ended 2021.
He added the OPC was yet to receive issues for the years 2022 and 2023.
Among others, Pac wants to engage Zamba on outstanding issues most of which came out from responses of controlling officers from various Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) on audit issues from 2020 to 2022 which point to the SPC’s office.
