Common Law with Mike Murenzvi
“Budgets don’t balance themselves, it takes fiscal discipline, and both the union and the government will have to show taxpayers that discipline.” ~ Pierre Poilievre
In 2019, Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube gazetted the Financial Adjustments Bill to seek Parliamentary condonation for the excess expenditure by government for the years 2015 to 2018.
After warranted pushback for detailed information supporting the Bill, it was later abandoned with the promise to reintroduce it.
In 2022, the Minister gazetted a new Bill covering the years 2019 and 2020. The Ninth Parliament dissolved before this Bill could be dealt with.
In each successive year, the government has exceeded its approved expenditure without seeking approval as required by the Constitution.
Just how much unauthorised expenditure is there?
The levels of unauthorised expenditure that have been declared so far in the abandoned Bills are as follows:
The levels of unauthorised expenditure in 2021 and 2022 according to the Auditor General are:
This gives approximately US$13.8 billion over eight years that Parliament has not been fully apprised of and approved.
The 2023 final figures aren’t available yet, but the trend of over-expenditure likely continued.
What does the Constitution say?
Section 307 of the Constitution deals specifically with unauthorised expenditure by government, and it states:
“(1) If it is found that more money has been expended on a purpose than was appropriated to it in terms of this Part, or that money has been expended on a purpose for which no money was appropriated under this Part, the Minister responsible for finance must introduce a Bill into the National Assembly seeking condonation of the unauthorised expenditure.
(2) The Bill referred to in subsection (1) must be introduced into the National Assembly without delay and in any event no later than sixty days after the extent of the unauthorised expenditure has been established.”
According to this section, the Minister had 60 days from the date that he knew he had gone over budget to approach Parliament for forgiveness after the fact.
Ideally, the Minister should approach Parliament before exceeding the budget as he would already know that the budget cannot meet the requirements. This should be done in the form of a supplementary budget. During the dark days of severe hyperinflation, there were three budgets in one year to ensure that the huge numbers and still comply with the Constitution at the time.
2024: A peculiar year
2024 presents a certain uniqueness in that we changed currencies a quarter into the year. That change of currency should have been accompanied by an Appropriation Bill that redenominates the budget from Zimbabwe Dollar (ZWL) to Zimbabwe Gold (ZiG). In so doing, the integrity of the budget would remain.
In his Mid Term Budget Review statement in July, the Minister of Finance presented a converted budget, but it had a very different conversion rate from ZWL to ZiG to what the RBZ Governor announced back in April.
While the rest of the economy used a rate of nearly 2500, the Minister used a rate of approximately 663. This effectively increased the budget by about 277% – without authorisation.
Speaking in Parliament recently, Ncube admitted as such, saying “the conversion of the 2024 Budget from ZWL to ZiG has resulted in most line ministries restoring their budget capacity which can take them up to year-end”.
Given that the 44% overall utilisation reported in the review statement is based on the converted amount to June, we can safely assume that the real utilisation based on the standard conversion is well over 100%.
Time for corrections
The only way to cure this constitutional delinquency by the Minister of Finance is to gazette a comprehensive Financial Adjustments Bill that contains sufficient detail as to the reasons for the excess expenditure.
This is what the Constitution dictates for Parliament to condone what has already been done.
There is no way to recover the funds spent, but it is best to understand the cause and find ways of controlling any further reoccurrence.
In the same vein, a supplementary budget may be warranted to both restate the existing budget into ZiG and to realign expenditure estimates for the rest of the year.
Parliament has the power to summon the Minister to bring in the Bill in the form that best cures this failure to uphold the Constitution and breach of oath of office that has been long in the making.
Mike Murenzvi writes in his personal capacity and his views are not associated with any organisation he is, or may be, affiliated with.
