Thread by @DavidColtart

#Zimbabweans you need to now what is happening in Parliament which has become more farcical than ever. Read the below excerpts from respected legal NGO Veritas regarding proceedings. Its a shocking record of contempt for Parliament & parliamentary process by the Min of Finance.

"Good points made by Hons Mushoriwa and Markham on the need to increase the allocation for the Auditor-General’s Office and how to do it [by transferring funds from the Ministry’s own Unallocated Reserve] were rebuffed. "

"The Minister said he was not prepared at this stage to divert funds from his Unallocated Reserve but preferred to keep it intact for the possibility of emergency needs, such as a further wave of COVID-19. "

When he rejected suggested increases for the Ministry of Health and Child Care requested by Hon Labode, Hon Mushoriwa deplored the Minister’s attitude as confirmation of “the fact that the Minister is not open to debate".

"It actually becomes a mockery to Parliament as the one that passes the Budget”. As a result of the Minister obduracy all votes were approved without amendment.

When the Finance Bill came up for its Second Reading Hon Mushoriwa objected on the grounds that MPs had only received the Bill about 6 pm that same evening and that to expect them to debate a 100-page document at such short notice would be unfair and wrong.

He asked for the Bill to be stood over, saying there would be time to deal with it next week (which is now this week). His objection was overruled by the Temporary Speaker.

The Minister then delivered a short Second Reading speech after which Hon Mushoriwa, citing the Bill’s provision for issues having nothing to do with the Budget as presented by the Minister and asked for time to submit amendments;

one such provision, he said, would allow Government to assume certain Reserve Bank debts payable in foreign currency presently classified as blocked funds.

The Minister replied to Hon Mushoriwa’s point that there was nothing in the Bill that should not be in a Finance Bill, and agreed with Hon Nyathi that it was necessary to make progress on the Finance Bill “so that we are ready to start the New Year on the right footing”.

In the circumstances, the Committee Stage that followed was a complete rubber stamping formality and disposed of quickly. So the Bill ended up being passed without amendments.

Veritas concluded by making the following observations:
Note: The Finance Bill as gazetted on Thursday didn’t even look right, a sure sign that it was a rushed job carried out under pressure, almost certainly without proper checking.

It has no page numbers, an essential aid to careful consideration, particularly in such a long Bill. The explanatory memorandum is incomplete, the usual Bill format was only roughly kept.

As it was presented digitally this inadequacy would have made it more difficult to read in the extremely short time available.

Can citizens be sure that the Bill was properly considered by their representatives in Parliament?