By Staff Writer
THE Zimbabwe Coalition of Debt and Development (ZIMCODD) has condemned MDC-T president Douglas Mwonzora’s recalls of MPs and Councilors saying such decisions choked local authorities capacity to fully implement recommendations from the Office of the Auditor General (AG).
The Non-Governmental –Organisation’s (NGO’s) remarks comes at a time when hundreds of MPs and councilors for reasons which defied operational objectives and tilted towards political aggrandizement.
Resultantly, most local authorities failed to avail adequate services to citizens as decision making structures were crippled with the majority failing to implement directives issued by the Auditor General.
In the coalition’s latest report, “Survey on the Implementation of AG’s Recommendations By Local Authorities” recommends the urgent need to trim the powers of political parties.
“The powers granted to a political party to recall its MPs and Councillors are now being abused for political gamesmanship. There is a need for stakeholders to explore ways to limit unreasonable recalls which are greatly affecting the functioning of the Local Authorities in particular and parliament in general,” said ZIMCODD.
The coalition urged the government to reduce its interference in the day to day running of the Local Authorities saying such operational habits are now being used to stifle progress in opposition control of Local Authorities to gain political scores for the ruling elites.
ZIMCODD said parliamentarians and councilors need to be capacitated to interrogate the OAG reports and to track to progress in the implementation of OAG recommendations which is critical for timely interventions on identified Public Finance Management red flags.
“Civil Society, media and the broader citizenry should be capacitated on available information and requisite skills to analyse available information and to generate evidence with which to lobby and hold both central and local governments to account,” added ZIMCODD.
