Parliamentarians last week said this was in violation of
the Public Entities Corporate Governance Act.
Parliament’s Portfolio committee on Public Accounts committee
noted that Auditor-General, Ms Mildred Chiri, had raised the issue in her
reports of failure to replace timeously boards for those State entities whose
term would have expired.
The committee said this last Friday during a virtual
meeting it held with Health and Child Care Permanent Secretary Dr Jasper
Chimedza and Chief Director in the Ministry of Youth, Sports, Arts and
Recreation, Dr Benson Dube, who was standing in for the Permanent Secretary Dr
Thokozile Chitepo.
Chairperson of a sub-committee of Public Accounts, Mr Edwin
Mushoriwa, said failure to reconstitute boards was in violation of the Public
Enterprise Corporate Governance Act.
This was after legislators noted that Ms Chiri had in her
reports observed that the boards of the Zimbabwe Youth Council and the Nurses
Council of Zimbabwe had gone for years without validly constituted boards.
Legislators were told that a high turnover of Ministers
where they were constantly changed during the First Republic contributed to the
delay in constituting the board of the ZYC while the then Minister of Health
and Child Care, Dr Obadiah Moyo appeared to drag his feet in replacing the
Nurses Council of Zimbabwe.
It was noted that the new Ministers of the two portfolios
had since constituted the boards of the entities.
In his evidence, Dr Chimedza said the labour unrest in the
Ministry of Health and Child Care where health workers went on a industrial
action also contributed to the delay.
“I was not yet in the Ministry then,” he said. “I believe
that there was a lot of instability in terms of industrial action which
resulted in constrained relationship between the Ministry and workers.
“There was a proposed board and because of the differences
there were delays in its appointment, but that is a thing of the past.”
Dr Chimedza said they had allowed the outgoing chairperson
of the board, Dr Lilian Dodzo, to continue serving on the board while the
Ministry engaged in the process to constitute it.
But legislators said allowing an official whose term had
expired to continue serving was not consistent with the Public Entities
Corporate Governance Act which takes precedence of any other law where there
appeared to be conflict.
In her evidence, Dr Dodzo said it was not easy to run the
board given that some decision required deliberations of the full board.
The Ministry had since appointed Dr Tendai Gunduza in
December to lead the newly constituted board.
In her evidence, Dr Dube admitted that the ZYC did not have
a board since 2015.
He said this was partly because of the high turnover of
Ministers during the First Republic where each Minister would want to
constitute his or her own board.
Dr Dube said another challenge that contributed to the
delay was the mandatory bureaucratic process that followed when the candidates
would have been identified.
The Public Enterprise and Corporate Governance Act
stipulates that it shall prevail over the enabling legal instrument to the
extent of any inconsistency.
It also says no person shall be appointed as a member of a
board of a public entity for a term longer than four years, and the appointment
may be renewed for only one further such term.
It also bars a person from serving on more than two boards.
Herald
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