By Patience Rashai

Government has called on good corporate governance, accountability and transparency within the Public State Enterprises, saying this is the only way that Government can achieve its set goals – upper middle economy by 2030.

Speaking during a Corporate Governance performance assessment conference for Public State Enterprise, the Auditor General said there was need to ensure accountability and transparency within parastatals and State owned enterprises.

“The recently launched Public Entities and Corporate Governance Act is one of the many initiatives that Government is undertaking to put an end to continuous dereliction of duty and deep-seated malfeasance in accounting procedures and procurement processes in most State entities; likewise local authorities which are also rapped in continuous malpractice,” said the auditor general, Mildred Chiri.

“Our office is the supreme audit institution of the country whose vision is to provide auditing services, produce informative, timely reports with practical recommendations so that public entities can be profitable and with the year ending there is need to assess if those recommendations have been implemented as well as measure their effectiveness.”

The Auditor General’s office/report previously fingered public officials in several State owned enterprises and Government departments for malpractices, for instance at the Pig Industry Board, Civil Aviation Authority, Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe, ZUPCO, ZIMSEC, NSSA, and local authorities such as Harare City Council, among other corporates, a situation the department hopes to arrest. A number of loss making parastatals and State owned enterprises are also primed for disposal.