Govt has no money to fund commissions

GOVERNMENT has blamed budgetary constraints for its failure to fund independent commissions to carry out their constitutional obligations since they were established eight years ago.

The Constitution adopted in 2013 called for the establishment of the commissions such as the Zimbabwe Gender Commission, National Peace and Reconciliation Commission, Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission and the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission.

Questions have been raised on the effectiveness of the commissions to fight human rights abuses and corruption among other vices amid claims that they were incapacitated due to low budgetary allocations.

Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs minister Ziyambi Ziyambi on Wednesday told Parliament that: "Realising the gaps in fulfilling benefits of independent commissions' management, the government since 2020 is now handling procurement and issuance of conditions of service vehicles to such levels. However, the process has been slow on account of budgetary constraints across the public service."

Ziyambi was responding to a question from Brian Dube (MDC Alliance, Gweru Urban), who wanted to know government policy on conditions of service for independent commissioners.

Dube said failure by government to capacitate the commissions undermined their integrity and importance.

Section 325 of the Constitution mandates the government to ensure adequate funding to commissions to enable them to function effectively.

"Currently, government is in the process of trying to improve the compensation framework from the initial approved compensation framework for cash in lieu of vehicles to the affected members, including members from independent commissions," Ziyambi said.