President Emmerson Mnangagwa last week said rampant abuse of public funds by government bureaucrats is crippling service delivery.
Addressing delegates at the procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe annual conference in the capital on Thursday, Mnangagwa said the government was crafting laws to punish officials charged with violating the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Act.
Mnangagwa said violation of tender procedures had become the major scam by which senior government officials were stealing public funds, according to NewsDay Zimbabwe. He said:
This conduct by procurement entities, which goes against the very tents of the Second Republic, will not be tolerated. My government is, therefore, cracking the whip on those who are bent on abusing public procurement processes, thereby frustrating and delaying government programmes and projects.
Some of my senior government officials when they are given vehicles they park them, deflate tyres and use the pool car to wait for time to expire so that they can acquire the vehicle while still quite new.
If the workers discover that the boss’s car is deflated they go and repair the wheel and the boss silently deflates another. Meanwhile he uses the pool car because he knows at the end of three or five years he will get the car in excellent condition, but at book value in terms of years. I am also informed that there are lots of motor vehicles and furniture in government offices just put aside, new furniture bought and put in office. All those are government assets and must be disposed according to the law.
His remarks support annual reports by Auditor-General Mildred Chiri which have often noted that billions of dollars are being lost to graft.
Some of the prominent cases:
1). In 2020, Health minister Obadiah Moyo awarded a US$60m contract for COVID-19 supplies with flouted procurement processes.
2). In 2022, Local Government Minister July Moyo ordered local authorities to buy fire trucks from Belarus at US$464 296 when the same fire tenders cost US$30 000 in countries like China.
3). In 2022, Parliament approved a tender for the supply of 173 laptops valued at US$9 200 each. The tender was later cancelled by the Finance ministry.