Chairman of the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Mr Zitto Kabwe
By Zitto Kabwe
THE office of the Controller and Auditor General (CAG) said yesterday it was yet to receive audit reports from any of the nine political parties getting subvention.
The remark is in response to a controversy triggered by remarks of the chairman of the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Mr Zitto Kabwe. His committee has since summoned six of the parties to explain why their accounts were yet to be audited.
The response by the deputy CAG, Mr Francis Mwakapalila, is likely to intensify the subvention controversy which has put the political parties and Mr Kabwe in a face-off in the last one week.
Zitto has accused nine political parties with representation in the Parliament of failing to submit their financial accounts to the CAG for auditing. He directed the registrar of political parties to suspend the subsidies of the parties for their failure to comply with the guiding law.
Zitto claimed that the parties had failed to submit audit reports accounting for a total of Sh67.7 billion in the past four years — a requirement made by the Political Parties (Amendment) Act, 2009.
The deputy CAG told The Citizen that the truth about the controversy will be known on Friday at a joint meeting of all the parties.
He, however, clarified that the CAG’s office had allowed parties to seek the services of external auditors. According to Mr Mwakapalila, the CAG can contract qualified firms to audit the political parties.
“Political parties are expected to maintain proper accounts every year and submit their financial reports, audited by the CAG, to the registrar of political parties,” he detailed.
PAC has summoned the parties on Friday to explain why they failed to submit the said reports. “We will know who was right or wrong, I hope the CAG will also be there. Let’s be patient,” he added.
The nine political parties have been insisting that they have submitted their audited accounts to the CAG and accused Mr Kabwe of overstepping his mandate.
Already, the Civic United Front (CUF) said it would not attend the Friday meeting and accused Mr Kabwe of acting beyond his legal powers.
The party’s deputy secretary general (Mainland), Mr Julius Mtatiro, said his party was not on the list of the parties that have not submitted their audit reports.
The ruling CCM has strongly accused the PAC, saying it was aware of the requirements of the law and that the it had has been submitting its audit reports to the CAG.
Its Publicity and Ideology secretary, Mr Nape Nnauye, said the Tanzania Audit Corporation has audited its accounts from 2003/04 to 2010/2011. “We’re waiting for the 2011/2012 audit report which is still with the external auditors,’’ adding that the report would be forwarded with the CAG once it is ready.
NCCR-Mageuzi chairman James Mbatia refuted reports that the party has not submitted its audit reports for four consecutive years.
“Our accounts were audited and we sent reports to the registrar,’’ he said.
He said, however, that the CAG’s office was cash-strapped and unable to oversee the auditing of political parties.
Chadema Information officer, Mr Tumaini Makene, said his party was playing by the rules as far as financial propriety and transparency were concerned. According to Zitto’s committee, CCM has failed to account for Sh50.97 billion, Chadema (Sh9.2 billion), CUF (Sh6.29 billion), NCCR-Mageuzi (Sh677 million), UDP (Sh33 million), TLP (Sh217million), APPT-Maendeleo (Sh11 million), DP (Sh3.3 million) and Chausta (Sh2.4 million).
Meanwhile, two PAC members yesterday defended Mr Kabwe against attacks by political parties allegedly for personalising the subvention issue, saying the matter was owned by the Committee.
They told The Citizen separately that Zitto had full blessings of members of the PAC before he made the statement to the effect that accounts of nine political parties had not been audited for four years.
“That is the position of our committee and not Zitto’s creations as political parties want the public to believe,” said a member of the committee, Mr Abdul Marombwa.
He said they were wondering why the political parties were personalising the issue while the matter surfaced the committee met registrar of political parties, Mr Francis Mutungi, who revealed the information.
“There is no Zitto’s agenda here, we all sat and agreed on the matter,” he said.
Another PAC member who asked not be named said their team was implementing Political Parties (Amendment) Act, 2009, which requires them to submit the parties accounts to the CAG for auditing and forward the audit reports to the registrar.
“The registrar confirmed to us none of the nine parties fulfilled that legal requirement,” he said.
“That was not Zitto’s statement, it was the outcome of the meeting,” he insisted.