The Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee hearings into
Command Agriculture and Sakunda was aborted yesterday after Zanu-PF legislators
asked Mr Tendai Biti to recuse himself from chairing the committee following
his party’s refusal to recognise President Mnangagwa.
The PAC was supposed to receive evidence from officials
from Sakunda and the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development.
Sakunda was represented by its chief operating officer Mr
Mberikwazvo Chitambo, while the ministry’s delegation was led by outgoing Chief
Director Mr Zvinechimwe Churu.
The Zanu-PF MPs took
the position following the continued boycott of President Mnangagwa by MDC
Alliance legislators whenever he attends Parliament.
The call for Mr Biti’s recusal was made by Chegutu West
legislator Cde Dexter Nduna and was supported by other Zanu-PF legislators,
prompting the adjournment of the meeting.
Cde Nduna accused Mr Biti of hypocrisy by spearheading the
work of the Committee basing on reports by the Auditor General Mrs Mildred
Chiri, who is an appointee of the President.
“She is the one that breathes life into PAC and is the one
that makes Honourable Biti champion the move of interrogating the manner the
Executive carries out its mandate using those (Audit) reports, which are quite
incisive,” he said.
“So, having said that you cannot recognise someone who is
appointed by the appointing authority and fail to recognise the appointing
authority. So, it was my fervent view that Honourable Biti should recuse
himself in terms of chairing that Committee.”
Speaking on behalf of Zanu-PF MPs, Cde Matthew Nyashanu
(Buhera Central) said the PAC would only meet after the SROC completes its
investigations into the MDC Alliance’s MPs conduct.
“Our position as Zanu-PF MPs is that Honourable Tendai Biti
is in the presidium of the MDC Alliance and these are the guys who are
instructing their MPs to boycott parliament when the President is coming to
parliament and it was seen yesterday that no MDC MP attended parliament, so we
have made a decision as Zanu-PF MPs in that PAC that we may not proceed until
we are given a directive by CSRO,” Cde Nyashanu said.
Parliament decided to set up a Privileges Committee to
investigate the conduct of MDC Alliance parliamentarians on Thursday after they
boycotted the budget presentation following a motion moved by the ruling
party’s chief whip, Cde Pupurai Togarepi.
Mr Biti said hearings had been postponed to November 29,
but refused to answer further questions. “We have started our meeting late and
we can’t conclude the interviews we want, so we have postponed this meeting to
Friday the 29th of November at 9am,” he said while announcing the postponement
of the meeting..
“Our questions will focus on Treasury Bills, the payments
made to Sakunda and other ancillary issues.”
Last week, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance
and Economic Development Mr George Guvamatanga denied that Government had paid
$3 billion to Sakunda, saying companies contracted under the programme had been
paid $1 billion since Command Agriculture’s inception. Herald
0 comments:
Post a Comment