Norton legislator Daniel Mushoriwa has accused Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube of bypassing Parliament by running what he called a “parallel budget,” warning that the practice undermines the credibility of Zimbabwe’s public finance management system.
Debating the Minister’s Mid-Term Fiscal Policy Review, Mushoriwa said government expenditure routinely exceeds allocations approved by Parliament, particularly in ministries such as the Office of the President and Cabinet and the Ministry of Agriculture.
“What we are budgeting and spending hours debating in this august House, the Honourable Minister is creating his own budget after leaving Parliament. We have done an analysis for the past five years – it is the same format, the same answer,” he said.
He criticised Treasury for failing to present supplementary budgets despite repeated overspending and accused Ncube of dipping into the unallocated reserve without parliamentary approval, in violation of Section 305 of the Constitution.
“The Minister has been taking money from the unallocated reserve as if it is his own. That money belongs to Parliament, it belongs to the people,” Mushoriwa charged, adding that the failure to follow due process weakened Parliament’s oversight role.
Turning to debt, Mushoriwa said domestic arrears had ballooned to unsustainable levels, with government owing an estimated US$2.3 billion to contractors and service providers. He warned that the true domestic debt could now exceed US$10 billion, mostly in US dollars, creating repayment risks that disproportionately hurt ordinary citizens.
“The government is continuously borrowing, digging a pit every time. And who suffers when the government becomes the major debtor? It is the poor person — the health system, our children, everything collapses,” he said.
On revenue, Mushoriwa questioned Ncube’s claim of missed targets, pointing out that the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority had exceeded tax collection goals. He argued that the real crisis lay in over-reliance on regressive taxes such as VAT, PAYE, and the 2% Intermediated Money Transfer Tax, which he said placed a disproportionate burden on the poor.
“Tax burden is weighing heavily on the poor of this country. Instead of reforming, the Minister missed a great opportunity to remove IMT tax, which is killing financial inclusivity,” he said.
Mushoriwa concluded by urging greater transparency, proper supplementary budgets, and a credible debt management strategy, warning that without reform, Parliament risked losing its relevance in fiscal governance.
