How government is preying on its own companies

On 16 November, another letter was sent to the Ministry of Finance. This time, ZimAsset was invoked to persuade treasury to authorise the deal.

“We are requesting treasury authority to purchase project and utility vehicles amounting to embarks on the US$233 400 using bridging finance from POTRAZ. As the ministry embarks on the accelerated implementation of ZimAsset projects under the Infrastructure and Utilities Cluster, mobility is one of the critical elements in speeding (up) the implementation of targeted projects and programmes as well as facilitating easy monitoring and evaluation of the projects.”

On November 24, a letter was sent seeking authorisation for Mlambo’s vehicle.

“The ministry hereby requests for treasury concurrence to go ahead and purchase the said vehicle using funds advanced by POTRAZ on the understanding that treasury will in turn reimburse POTRAZ the sum of $95 000 as soon as funds become available.”

Still, Treasury did not respond. Aware that the car purchase, unauthorised by treasury, would be noted by an audit, the ministry’s Director of Finance and HR wrote a 15 December memo to the permanent secretary.

He wrote: “Failure to obtain treasury concurrence would result in an audit observation and a qualified audit opinion on the ministry. To avoid the inevitable embarrassing situation, it is requested that this issue of treasury concurrence be handled at a higher level.”

On 17 December 2015, with the audit bearing down on the ministry, Kundishora wrote to Mandiwanzira: “We borrowed money from our state owned enterprises that must be reimbursed. Failure to get commitment letter (concurrence note) from Ministry of Finance will result in auditors making an observation and a qualified audit opinion on the ministry. The consequences are that this observation will reach Parliament thus putting the minister into a defence mode.”

On the same day, Mandiwanzira pleaded with Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa to authorise the purchase.

Failure by the ICT Ministry to get Chinamasa’s approval, Mandiwanzira said, would result in the arrangement “receiving a qualified audit opinion from the Auditor General’s office, the consequence of which will receive Parliamentary scrutiny and reprimand.”

“To this end, I hereby request through your good office the facilitation of this concurrence note without further delay, to regularise the approved vehicle purchase arrangements.”

No treasury approval was ever given, as to be later confirmed by the report tabled by the Auditor General (AG) recently.

In a response to The Source, Mandiwanzira said there was nothing untoward about the parastatal car loans to his ministry.

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