Open Government Including Corruption, Accountability & Transparency Summary The government did not demonstrate any commitment towards openness in governance. With regard to corruption, on 16 November, Afrobarometer found that nearly one-third of Africans in 34 countries including Zimbabwe were forced to pay bribes, including for medical treatment. The government lacked accountability and transparency especially in relation to revenue flows. As a demonstration of general lack of revenue transparency, the government did not fully implement the economic management programme agreed with the IMF in June 2013, as a pre-condition for re-engagement. There remained secrecy around diamond mining and revenue. The government was not accountable and neither did it take responsibility for economic decline, and continued misleading the nation on the sanctions issue. In detail G. Legislative Agenda and Commitments This part of the Roadmap called for legislation on actions (i) to (vi) and action by the President on (v): (i) re-alignment of laws with new Constitution, and addressing of transitional arrangements. This was not achieved. The timeline agreed in the Roadmap was “within 60 days from Referendum” the target date being 16 May 2013. As the substantive provisions of the draft constitution had been known since 2012, the legislation should have been ready. But there was no sign of any significant development of the necessary Bill for amending the Electoral Act, or of Bills dealing with the new metropolitan and provincial councils and changes to local government laws, or any other transitional issues. [See Constitution Watch 26/2013 of 8th May for an outline of necessary legislative changes.]. On 6 September 2013, Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association chairperson Cde Jabulani Sibanda said the new constitution should be amended to reverse all compromises that do not sit well with ZANU PF. (ii) enactment of Human Rights Commission Bill by September 2011. This was done late and unsatisfactorily with the Bill being enacted, in 2012, well after the deadline. But the Act that emerged lacked provisions ensuring the independence of the Commission fell short of international legal standards of human rights institutions, and financial support to operationalize it was not forthcoming. This led to the resignation of the Commission’s distinguished and experienced chairperson, Professor Reg Austin. (iii) amendment of section 121(3) of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence [CPE] Act to confine it to specific prescribed offences was not done. This called for an agreement by September 2011 on amendments to restrict the application of section 121(3) of the Act, the provision hitherto much abused by prosecutors to block grants of bail by magistrates. But no agreement was reached, and an MDC-T Private Member’s Bill to repeal section 121(3) had stalled. 54