16th February 2021
SADC Executive Secretary Stergomena Lawrence Tax is supposed to be accountable to member states and their citizens. But you wouldn’t know that if you read the 433 page long Board of Auditors Management report on the audit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) secretariat for the financial year ending 31
st March 2020.
Although the report does not spell it out in so many words, for eight years, Tax presided over an institution with a pattern of behaviour that suggests a penchant to undercut all avenues of oversight and frustrate scrutiny of its activities.From violating financial regulations to brushing aside directives agreed by the council of ministers, the SADC Secretariat under Tax acted as an opaque and unaccountable principal rather than a transparent and accountable agent.For starters, since ascending to the helm of the SADC Secretariat, Tax has never presented an annual report to the 345 million SADC citizens.States the audit report under subheading “Weaknesses on preparation of SADC Annual Report”: “SADC Financial Regulation 75 “Annual Report and Oversight Report” provides that as part of the year end reporting requirements the Accounting Officer shall cause the preparation and submission of an Annual Report to the Council. The Annual Report shall include among other information the audited annual financial statements of the Secretariat, the Board of Auditors audit report on those financial statements; particulars of any corrective action taken or to be taken in response to issues raised in the audit report; and any explanations that may be necessary to clarify issues in connection with the financial statements.