Home affairs exceeds budget vote by $75 million

The Auditor-General Mildred Chiri has revealed that the Ministry of Home Affairs exceeded its 2013 budget vote by more than $75 million without parliamentary approval because of excess expenditure emanating from the ZRP and the Register-Generals office.

In her report on appropriation accounts and miscellaneous funds for the year ended 2013, Chiri blasted such expenditure saying it constrained government resources. ZRP was allocated $282million in the 2013 budget but spent $364million.

"Contrary to the provisions of Section 19 of the Public Finance Management Act (Chapter 22:19), the ministry's vote as a whole was exceeded by $75 million. This was due to the ministry's reliance on the use of the 2013 financial year supplementary estimates which had not been approved by parliament," said Chiri.

ZRP however denied overspending and insisted it had made a saving of $6.3 million which was not released by treasury.

In June last year the ZRP spending habits came under scrutiny when Zimra told parliament that ZRP and Zinara should remit all the money they collect to treasury.