Items filtered by date: Thursday, 10 March 2022

• Gamal Ibrahim - Chief of Economic Governance and Public Finance Division of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).

• Distinguished Prosecutors from SADC Member States Who are involved in Prosecution of Financial Crimes and Related Offences;

• Mr Daniel Greenberg, Legal Drafter for the SADC Model Law on Public Financial Management;

• Members of the Technical Working Group on the Model Law on Public Financial Management;

• Ms Caroline Kwamboka, Trustee and Founding Director of African Renaissance; and Member of the Technical Working Group on the PFM Model Law;

• SADC Citizens following proceedings on various social media platforms;

• Members of the Media;

• Staff of National Parliaments and SADC Parliamentary Forum
• Distinguished

• Introduction

Dear Colleagues and Distinguished Participants,

It is indeed a great privilege and honor for me to address a distinguished gathering of fearless advocates, comrades, experts and practitioners working in the area of Public Financial Management. I welcome you today to this consultative meeting on the Model Law on Public Financial Management (PFM) hosted under the auspices of the SADC Parliamentary Forum.

As you may be aware, the Forum is accustomed to holding widespread consultations for its Model Laws under development in view of ensuring that the Model Laws are responsive to the current needs and demands of the SADC citizenry.

The Consultation today takes, place after a series of successful consultations have occurred with SADC Line Ministries, Auditors General, AML/CFT agencies, revenue authorities, police representatives and prosecutors, to cite but a few. However, it was also necessary to engage with private stakeholders which are essentially Non- Governmental Organisations (NGOs) that are not publicly funded and hence have their own perspective on the state of the PFM framework of SADC Member States.

At this juncture, I wish to thank you for finding the time to attend today. The Forum has always held Civil Society Organisations in high regard, and furthermore valued their immense knowledge base, as well as their abundant contributions to State processes. In fact, many of you today already form part of the Forum's Partnership Framework, and we equally invite all CSOs today to collaborate with the Forum beyond the ambit of this august meeting.

• Why engage Civil Society Organisations?

I wish to underscore that the ongoing engagement with Civil Society Organisations is necessary since you are in touch with grassroot realities and constantly evaluate national and regional policy on good governance and PFM. You relentlessly work to promote good governance and thus ensure that PFM is kept under the radar.

The Forum also recognises that you are smart players in the realm of PFM and denounce corruption, fraud and bribery on a routinely basis. You follow up on Governmental measures and actions which affect PFM. Your celerity in uncovering PFM issues which are relevant to the public is also well known. In this regard, you are known to be guardians of truth and justice. Moreover, you engage with the press and ensure that PFM is constantly kept under scrutiny of the media. You are also enablers of parliamentary democracy since you interact with Parliamentarians and feed them information for parliamentary questions, for debates in the House, or for public hearings and campaigns. The PFM landscape is thus incomplete without your diligent work and input. Your contributions as CSOs to furnish reports for country evaluations relating to democracy and governance indices for Africa are notable contributions which have ensured that the information garnered is balanced, and show the progress made as well as challenges in an unbiased and fair manner.

I would also like to salute the commendable work performed by CSOs who are involved in sensitisation campaigns on PFM. Some CSOs have conducted tremendously effective work in ensuring that communities in Africa understand the budgeting process,the basics of corruption, and the PFM processes of the State, a knowledge which would otherwise remain completely unknown and far from reach for the layman. It is trite that sensitisation campaigns on aspects of PFM which pertain to the bribery of public officials and fraud are of paramount importance if we are one day to rid the region of such malpractices that are abhorrent to good governance.

• Expectations from the audience today

Today, we expect that as prominent CSOs of the region, you engage openly and frankly with the legal drafter and Rapporteurs on the provisions of the PFM Model law which are of interest to you. For instance, you may consider Part V on parliamentary control which provides for avenues and possibilities for MPs to engage with a number of stakeholders during Committee sittings, including CSOs. In addition, you may wish to consider the Offences section under Part 11 which deal with particular PFM offences such as maladministration and financial irregularities and discuss their appropriateness. In addition, you will equally be interested in Part IV which deal with the Appropriation of funds by Government through the budgeting process.

Section 60 relating to the SDG Budget statement and section 61 on the International Commitment statement will also assist you in holding the Government accountable on commitments taken and treaties ratified. Indeed, for the first time, the Budget document will need to be explicit about how budget lines are assisting to implement concretely the SDGs and other international commitments such as those in gender related treaties and covenants.

• Way forward and domestication

Dear Colleagues and Distinguished Participants,

In terms of the way forward, I wish to mention that CSOs will be directly involved in the domestication process of the SADC Model Law on PFM since CSOs as private stakeholders will be entrusted with the crucial role of providing shadow reports to the Regional Parliamentary Model Laws Oversight Committee (RPMLOC), which is the dedicated Forum organ to monitor domestication.

In this respect, CSOs may be called upon to work together with other stakeholders such as prosecutors, AML/CFT agencies to provide shadow reports on the observance of PFM provisions contained in the Model Law. For CSOs who are interfacing for the first time with the Forum, you are kindly requested to share your coordinates and your country of origin within SADC so that we may get in touch with domestication initiatives when same are operationalised through the Oversight Committee.

• Conclusion

Without doubt, PFM issues in Southern Africa will not be resolved in a fortnight. Consistent sensitisation and advocacy will be required by CSOs to make the SADC region become a financial hub that is effervescent with robust PFM systems in each Member State.

CSOs will surely concur that without a strong PFM framework, the prospect of good governance remains dismal. Absence of good governance will in turn lead to corruption, fraud and abusive practices. There is thus a need to elevate PFM as a stepping stone with the aim to attain a true and functioning democracy where citizens live in freedom and reap the resources of the State with fairness and merit. We have no doubt that CSOs will assist the Forum in that noble and promising endeavour for a better and more equitable Southern Africa.

On this note, I wish you a pleasant session.

Ms Boemo Sekgoma, Secretary General,

SADC Parliamentary Forum 10th March 2022

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STATEMENT BY THE SECRETARY GENERAL DURING STAKEHOLDER CONSULTATIONS FOR THE SADC MODEL LAW ON PUBLIC FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT, WITH CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANISATIONS (CSO)

• Introduction

Dear Colleagues and Distinguished Participants,

It is with singular pleasure that I welcome you, prosecutors of the SADC region, to this consultative meeting on the Model law on Public Financial Management (PFM) hosted under the auspices of the SADC Parliamentary Forum. As you may be aware, the Forum is the parliamentary arm of the SADC institutional framework, and it is bestowed with the crucial mandate to formulate Model Laws that may serve as guiding yardsticks for national Parliaments.

In this respect, you may recall that prosecutors of the SADC region were equally involved in consultative meetings last year in 2021 prior to the adoption of GBV Model law by the 50th Plenary Assembly of the Forum.

Indeed, elaborate consultations are the cornerstone of the methodology of Model law-making espoused by the Forum. Furthermore, the Membership of the Forum considers that engaging in consultations with key stakeholders is a testament to participatory democracy that is pivotal in ensuring that legislative instruments reflect the actual demands and needs of the SADC citizenry.

• Why engage with prosecutors of the SADC region?

Prosecutors of the SADC region have always been considered as eminent stakeholders who are directly involved in the fight against crime. For the purposes of the SADC Model law on PFM, the crimes involved include financial crime, corruption, money laundering, financial misappropriations, to cite but a few. The list goes long and I am sure you will concur that with new technologies such as cryptocurrencies, and other recent developments in the financial sector, the prosecution of financial crime requires the requisite knowledge, skills and competence. No doubt, prosecutors of the SADC region have conducted a tremendous job so far in ensuring the prosecution of financial crime and it is indeed due to your unique expertise that the Forum has deemed it appropriate to engage in consultations with you in view of informing the finalisation process of the Model Law.

At this juncture, I would like to add that we have already consulted with different organisations involved in the State's institutional framework including Line Ministries and departments, AML/CFT agencies, as well as police representatives. The engagement today with prosecutors will thus mark the pinnacle of the consultative meetings held with the Executive concerning the investigation and prosecution of financial crime and related offences.

We firmly believe that Prosecutors are highly relevant to the PFM framework. Prosecutors receive files from the Police and need to make the momentous decision of whether to go ahead with prosecution or not. They evaluate the evidence available and advise the

Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) who is entrusted with the discretion to prosecute or not prosecute, depending on the tenor of the evidence and the circumstances.

The Office of the DPP also guards against abusive police arrests, detention and investigation, since prosecutors check and verify all collected evidence and take a decision thereon accordingly in all independence and fairness. Prosecutors also appear in bail cases to object to bail of offenders involved in financial crime when there are serious grounds to do so, such as the risk of tampering with evidence or witnesses.

In most SADC Member States, the Office of the DPP is a constitutional function, which means that the position of the DDP is enshrined in the Constitution, and therefore it is entitled to act without the interference of any other person or authority. This also constitutes one of the reasons why we have deemed it appropriate to hold a separate consultative session only for prosecutors so that you may have the leverage to speak among yourselves and engage openly and frankly with the legal drafter.

• Expectations from the audience

Today, as lawyers, you are invited to consider the provisions of the Model Law in their entirety, and as prosecutors your attention is kindly drawn to Part 11 dealing with Offences, Maladministration and Enforcement. In addition, you will find that there is also a separate provision governing Offences under Part 16. You may further wish to advise on penalty and sentencing provisions by benchmarking with offences of similar gravity in your national jurisdictions.

You will further note that the PFM Model Law does not cover all the different forms of financial crimes but only the part that deals with PFM. It was deemed appropriate to consider the wide spectrum of financial crimes and offences relating to AML/CFT in a separate instrument to be developed later since at this stage, it was important to keep the legislative focus on PFM. In addition, you will note that provisions relating to prosecution powers have not been included since it is understood that these will already be covered under your respective Constitutions or prosecution laws. Your comments will thus be welcome from the prosecution perspective on the existing provisions of the Model Law, and on whether in your view these can work in tandem with your existing laws and regulations.

• Way forward

Dear Colleagues and Distinguished Participants,

I wish to highlight that once the Model Law will be adopted by the Plenary Assembly of the SADC-PF, it will be subject to a progressive domestication process. While we fully recognise that prosecutors are not involved in policy processes concerning PFM, it is expected that prosecutors across SADC will kindly lend their support to push for the domestication of prosecution policy regarding PFM related offences. The rationale is that no PFM framework will stand in a sustainable way unless there are offences that can be enforced as a major deterrent to ensure future compliance.

You will thus be called upon through your national Parliaments to participate in domestication initiatives of the dedicated organ of the SADC-PF, notably the Regional Parliamentary Model Laws Oversight Committee (RPMLOC) in view of furnishing reports or shadow reports on prosecution policy. Your ongoing cooperation in that regard will be highly appreciated in view of ensuring that PFM frameworks are domesticated with the appropriate prosecution policy and sentences that can be realistically enforced.

• Conclusion

To conclude, I wish to thank you for attending this august event under the auspices of the SADC-PF. The Forum recognises that democracy depends heavily on the rule of law, which is itself reliant on the respect for law and regulations that is enforced by Offices of the Directors of Public Prosecution across SADC. Prosecuting agencies are catalysts to the respect and observance of the PFM framework, and they are the noble guardians of good governance and accountability. I wish to end by applauding the independent work carried out by prosecuting agencies so far which have made the SADC region a promising land where democracy can dare to make leaping advances, without hindrance or fear of reprisals.

With these hopeful words, I wish you a constructive session in engaging openly and frankly with the legal drafter and other interveners.

Thank you.

Ms B.Sekgoma, Secretary General,

SADC Parliamentary Forum 9TH March 2022

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STATEMENT BY THE SECRETARY GENERAL DURING STAKEHOLDER CONSULTATIONS FOR THE SADC MODEL LAW ON PUBLIC FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT, WITH PROSECUTORS INVOLVED IN THE PROSECUTION OF FINANCIAL CRIME AND RELATED OFFENCES