Poor public fund management limiting SADC potential

LETTICIA MAGOMBO 

The Southern African Development Community Parliamentary Forum (SADC PF) has said that the mismanagement of public funds is limiting the growth potential of the region. 

The SADC PF first adopted in July of this year has been on mission to modernise and revitalise the public finance management framework of the SADC member states through ensuring the full implementation of its model law in conjunction with the Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP).

However, this has been an uphill battle. 

Boemo Sekgoma, SADC PF Secretary General, told a dialogue of non-State actors on Tuesday that accountability by the executive in the management of public funds has become an issue of central public significance. 

One of the areas she said was being largely affected by this was the agricultural sector. 

“It has been noted that member states struggle to make progress in agriculture partly due to lack of accountability and transparency in the use of public resources in implementing agricultural programmes,” Sekgoma said.

She said a number of countries in the world face many challenges related to financial mismanagement of public resources such as poor finance report practice, weak internal control systems, weak financial administration, unethical relationships with vendors of agriculture supply and rushed spending on budgets at the end of the budget year.

“This coupled with corruption in government contracts or licenses of agricultural supplies make it difficult for agriculture to thrive,” Sekgoma said.

She added that this had roll over effects on other marginalised groups in SADC member states. 

“At the same time, it has been observed that there are strong gender disparities in agriculture and other areas. While formal jobs are mostly taken by men, menial jobs which are informal are mainly carried out by women and at lower wages. The same dissimilar treatment is provided to women in textile and manufacturing industries, this is aggregated by a high dropout rate of young girls due early and unintended pregnancies.”

The solution for this, the executive said, lay in the implementation of the model law by all regional players. 

“It is our hope that this model law will pave the way for a region that is financially transparent, accountable and efficient with parliament exercising adequate and timely oversight. The model law weaves in with the objectives of the RISDP which envisages that developmental goals within SADC will be reached within a climate that is conducive to good governance, transparency, and accountability.”

She said legislators and non-state actors would be instrumental in ensuring that governments were held accountable.

“Parliamentarians as elected officials play a critical role through the PFM cycle. A well-functioning public management system is critical to showing accountability and efficiency in the use of public financial resources while a weak PFM system can result in significant wastage of scarce resources,” Sekgoma said.

“Non-State Actors are thus encouraged to engage fully on the RISDP using the model laws developed by the forum as a springboard to demand norms that favour accountability in particular the model on public financial management can be a robust guiding tool which maybe be geared to promote transparency openness and the instilling of anti-corruption frameworks.”