By Southern Times Writer
Windhoek – The Southern Africa Development Community Parliamentary Forum (SADC PF) has pledged to work closely with revenue authorities from across the region in the development of a Public Financial Management Model Law.
One of the SADC PF’s key initiatives is development of Model Laws, which act as normative standards that serve as guiding legislative benchmarks for national parliaments of member states.
At a stakeholder consultation with revenue authorities this week, SADC PF Secretary-General Ms Boemo Sekgoma said, “The development of Model Laws is a testament to the Forum’s belief in the rule of law, and is paramount to spearhead the domestication of international best practices, hence the rationale behind the development of the SADC Model Law on PFM.”
The Windhoek-based SADC PF brings together 15 of SADC’s 16 parliaments with the overarching objective of promoting inter-parliamentary co-operation and diplomacy. The Public Financial Model Law forms part of Forum’s efforts to promote prudential financial planning as informed by the organisation’s Strategic Plan 2019-2023.
Ms Sekgoma said the world was “shifting from the notion of revenue authorities being merely a traditional collecting agency to being an active advisory unit on policy, including revenue administration, money laundering and the financing of terrorism”.
“Revenue authorities thus have a huge portfolio of tasks which have inroads and linkages with the PFM framework of the state. Revenue authorities are also recognised as investigatory units which witness the flows of money and are thus well placed to report suspicious transactions which may be harmful to the PFM framework,” she added.
The SADC PF Secretary-General urged revenue authorities to take a lead in domestication of the Model Law.
“Furthermore, there will be ongoing collaborative opportunities for revenue authorities to engage with the dedicated organ of the Forum, notably the Regional Parliamentary Model Laws Oversight Committee, to report on the extent of the domestication process in each member state in the coming years.”
The keynote speaker at the virtual stakeholder consultation was Southern African Customs Union Executive Secretary Ms Paulina Elago; while Mr Daniel Greenberg – Legal Drafter for the SADC Model Law on Public Financial Management – also participated.
