How does Zimbabwe manage US$8 billion imports from US$3 billion exports?

A Member of Parliament has asked how Zimbabwe manages to import goods valued at US$8 billion when its exports are only US$3 billion.

Making his second contribution to the corruption debate. Kambuzuma Member of Parliament, Willias Madzimure, who proposed the motion, said this was a typical example of corruption through which people who had siphoned money out of the country brought it back.

“What the corrupt people do, after having amassed wealth through corrupt means, after having siphoned those proceeds outside this country, they use certain means and ways to clean the money or bring back the money.

“You siphon the money out and the next thing you bring a tanker full of fuel using the proceeds and you deliver the fuel to any one of the service stations. When you are paid, you deposit the money and use the proceeds to buy anything that you want.

“It now appears to be clean when actually the assets that you may be acquiring are products of corruption. Therefore, as a country, we must start looking at ways and means of making sure that we recover through the acquisition of those proceeds of corruption,” he said.

Madzimure said it was easy for Zimbabwe to track down people that were involved in corruption because it was a signatory to the United Nations Convention against Corruption.

“If we want as Zimbabwe, to find out why we do not have a lot of money in our banks but we have got a lot of money that we use to import, you look at our balance sheet. We have very little exports, about US$ 3 billion but we import US$8 billion worth of products. You then ask where the money to bring back those products is coming from. Those are the proceeds of corruption.

“So, if we want as Zimbabwe to recover what these people take out of this country through corrupt means, we can do so through the engagement of the United Nations. If you want to know exactly who in Zimbabwe banks with which bank outside, it is possible for us to get the information. So, for corruption to be dealt with effectively, we must chase those corrupt people, follow them up here in Zimbabwe and outside Zimbabwe. That is the only way we can fight corruption.”

Here is Madzimure’s full contribution:

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