Corruption affects production in the nation
By Letwin Mazarura
Funds amounting to US $1.3 billion are being channeled illegally out of the nation every year.
This was revealed by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) Deputy Chairperson, Commissioner Phineas Murapa, during the commission’s virtual interface with the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs on Friday.
“This is why we come up with our own country perception and try to see that from a country perspective how corrupt are we,” he said.
“So corruption has to be looked at in both ways, for those who are receiving it and those who are sending it.”
Acts such as under-invoicing, smuggling of gold and other minerals, have seen the country lose large amounts that could be injected into the economy and serve better purposes.
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has also begun to penalise firms and individuals that fail to account for foreign currency obtained from the Foreign Currency Auction market.
ZACC is currently trying to recover an estimated US$7 billion worth of assets siphoned from the country.
The corruption-fighting body has already activated links with private companies and international agencies to recover the loot.
US$153 million is being invested to expand Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport, while Beitbridge Border Post is being modernised at a cost of US$300 million.
These are projects that could have potentially been financed from the externalised resources.
Organisations such as Transparency International Zimbabwe (TIZ) claim the country could have lost over billions in the three decades owing to illicit financial flows (IFFs).
Some IFFs are reportedly facilitated through commercial transactions such as transfer pricing.
Reports say that there are also high levels of IFFs in the mining sector.
According to the African High Level Panel on IFFs, corruption only accounts for 5%, criminal activities 35%, while commercial transactions account for the 60% of the US$50 billion lost in the continent annually.
Economist and member of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Monetary Policy Committee Mr Persistence Gwanyanya said externalisation is a serious case in Zimbabwe, as the country is one of the few in the world that use United States dollar as official currency.
“With the dollar regime that we have in our country, the temptation to siphon money is very high. Normally we are seen as fertile ground for such activities which has the effect of the country losing out,” said Mr Gwanyanya.
Mr Gwanyanya said the environment itself presents an opportunity for externalisation and loss of the US dollar to the rest of the world.
Economist Professor Gift Mugano said externalisation was putting a huge strain on domestic resource mobilisation.
“We also need to strengthen other security arms such as the police because they have the skills to intercept some of these transactions,” he said.
Speaking during the same interface, ZACC Commissioner Gabriel Chaibva expressed concern over deep-rooted corruption at Harare City Council and other local authorities.
“We have a report which says Kelvin South Road in Graniteside has been repaired when there is not even a brick, and it’s contained in the internal audit of the Harare City Council,” he said.
“The most challenging issues on these local authorities is that almost everybody has become a criminal. Those in the environmental management committee commit their crimes there, those in the car parks they make their money there; no one is superintending over the other,” he said.
“This is one of the biggest challenges that we are now fighting. We now have a cartel involving senior officers, and these senior officers are superintending over their juniors in making sure they get their share of the proceeds of crime.”
Another ZACC Commissioner, Ms Sukai Tongogara, said efforts to prosecute perpetrators were being undermined by lack of legal instruments to protect whistleblowers and witnesses.
“Abuse of office has the highest number of cases that we are handling,” she said.
“The witnesses usually are subordinates of those senior officials and to ask them to come and give evidence when we don’t have any legislation protecting them is difficult.
“For example, the case of Zinara (Zimbabwe National Road Administration) took time. After we called witnesses to come to ZACC, they were either transferred or fired through fake disciplinary charges done because these senior officials we arrested, were not suspended from work, and they went back to work after they appeared in court.”
She called for officials who have cases pending before the courts to be suspended.
The commission is reportedly aware of corruption by some judges and prosecutors.
Add comment