"They Don’t Have Courage To Go For The Big People," John Robertson On Corruption

Economist, John Robertson, has called for accountability in handling public accounts and condemned behaviour by some local authorities which violated basic corporate governance tenets.

His remarks were in response to the annual audit report by Auditor General Mrs Mildred Chiri that was tabled in Parliament recently. The report revealed mismanagement of public funds by several government ministries and departments. Robertson said:

Accounting standards are well known but from the report, councils have been behaving badly. There is no excuse why people should not do their job.

It would appear that there is no political will. They also don’t have the courage to go for the big people. No one should be above the law, they should just deal with corruption.

Economist Persistence Gwanyanya lamented lack of action on Auditor General’s recommendations. Gwanyanya said:

We need a change of culture and also require action on some of the things highlighted by the auditor general. We do not want the auditor general to reveal things and no action is taken. We have not been enforcing what the audit report is saying and that is not right.

I think we need to be serious and the recent decision to bring the Zimdollar might fail if we are not committed to change.

Chiri’s audit report is a reminiscence of her previous audit reports whose recommendations have not been implemented.

More: The Independent