State assets plundered
in [Physics]
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From: as on 23 May 2010 12:51 State assets plundered http://www.timeslive.co.za May 22, 2010 7:08 PM | By ZOLI MANGENA and STANLEY GAMA State employees loot Reserve Bank through illegal auctions of public property over unpaid debts A syndicate of senior Zimbabwean government officials, including ministers and top senior civil servants, is looting Reserve Bank assets through illegal auctions of public property over unpaid debts. This is revealed in Reserve Bank documents naming those who have been buying the assets for next to nothing, at auctions which the Attorney-General's Office this week described as ''unlawful". Ministers currently under investigation over the issue, as well as senior public officials, including Air Force of Zimbabwe commander Air Marshal Perence Shiri, have been grabbing the properties at dubious auctions. Shiri bought a Cam ambulance worth $30000 for only $3000 and a brand-new Mazda T35 Swaraj bus, whose real value is $44000, for $12300. He also bought a headboard for $50, although the real value is $100. According to the documents, Shiri also bought a four-piece leather lounge suite for $580 - the market value is $2500. The looting of public assets through auctions came as the Comptroller and Auditor-General unearthed shocking mismanagement and abuse of public property at CMED (Pvt) Ltd, a state-owned company which provides and operates transport hire services for government ministries and departments. CMED provides top-of-the-range cars for ministers and other government VIPs. According to the document, titled: Report of Comptroller and Auditor-General on the Management of Government Vehicles, the corruption-ridden company is a shambles and that has created room for rent-seeking behaviour, abuse of public assets and even theft. "I established that vehicle registers were not properly recorded and that there was no master asset register. Therefore, I was not able to verify the 1200 vehicles which management stated was their total fleet," Comptroller and Auditor-General Mildred Chisi said in her latest report. "As a result of poor record-keeping, I was not able to trace the movement of 19 vehicles transferred from Head Office to Harare province. ''The 19 vehicles were also not recorded at the provincial office. I observed that of the 68 Mahindra vehicles bought, 15 of them were issued without proper procedures having been followed and one could hardly trace them. This is open to abuse and could result in CMED losing vehicles." The report said there was rampant chaos in the CMED departments of acquisition and distribution, spares, repairs and stores management, and also in the general running of the company. While cars were disappearing without trace at CMED, Reserve Bank assets were going for a song at illegal auctions. The auctions, prompted by the Reserve Bank's failure to pay debts, and sanctioned by the High Court, have been going on in Harare, Bulawayo, Gweru, Mutare, Masvingo, Chinhoyi, Kariba and Nyanga. The Attorney-General's Office said they were illegal, even if ordered by the courts. According to documents at hand most of the auctioned property consists of buses, tractors, furniture and generators. Houses and expensive cars could also go under the hammer. The auctions were triggered by Farm-Tec, a company owned by Zanu-PF officials, which supplied 60 tractors worth $2.1-million to the Reserve Bank, which later failed to pay. Lawyers at the Attorney-General's Office told The Sunday Times that the auctions were "illegal". They said government should intervene to stop the "pillage". "We have been told that public assets are going for a song and we are aware that a syndicate of top government officials is buying most of the stuff. Actually, the Minister of Finance is supposed to take over the debts of the Reserve Bank and budget for them," a senior lawyer said. "The auctions are illegal and what is going on is criminal because government assets are not executable. The debt does not belong to the bank but to the state. It must be stopped because in the end the Ministry of Finance will have to buy all that is being sold. It is government which is being stripped of assets, not the bank," the lawyer said. The Reserve Bank has a string of debts, including a $1-billion liability, which has been taken over by the government. The debts were incurred at the height of the economic meltdown and quasi-fiscal operations which were blamed for hyperinflation. However, certain debts have not been assumed by the state, hence the auctions. Government insiders said Reserve Bank authorities had now appealed to President Robert Mugabe and minister of finance Tendai Biti to intervene to stop the plunder of public assets through auctions. "Reserve Bank officials have appealed to Mugabe and Biti to intervene, because, at this rate, most Reserve Bank assets could be auctioned to well-connected politicians and their friends," a government insider said. Asked for comment Biti said: "We have to come up with a Reserve Bank (Debt Restructuring) Act and will probably create a curator or judicial manager so that people can go there and prove a claim. There is also the State Liabilities Act - that law should be extended to the Reserve Bank, because we cannot allow stripping of public assets."
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