In a bid to strengthen public procurement and fight against corruption, a clear legal framework has been established. The framework is also to guide those who are ignorant and expose those who intend to embezzle public funds. In an interview with the Secretary General of the ministry of Finance and Economic Planning John Rwangombwa, the Public Procurement act was enacted and adopted to international standards alongside supporting documents like standard bidding documents. “In procurement there is a likelihood to embezzle funds, but when you build a system which is strong it’s enough to guide people who are ignorant about the law and expose defaulters,” he said. Rwangombwa highlighted that the Finance ministry has also embarked on producing the government financial statement for 2006 which will make it easy to track the way government funds are spent. The government financial statement focuses on revenue, expenditure and reconciliation of books of accounts of public organs. “With this statement of books of accounts, we are so optimistic that it would be easy to track money movements,” he averred. Formerly the ministry used to produce a budget execution report, but it was difficult to monitor money movement. However, the 2007 financial statement will soon be produced. “To produce a government financial statement wasn’t an easy task, because for it to be possible we had to build a legal framework like public finance management, Integrated Financial Management and Information System (IFMIS) and organic and financial regulations,” he explained.Ends
