On Fiscal Policy, as I have said Mr. Speaker Sir, this Government has been borrowing amounts without parliamentary approval. I have talked about the $500 million AFREXIM Bank facility; that is one thing. They have recently borrowed from the Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC) of London – $100 million without parliamentary approval; they have borrowed from GemCorp – $250 million. GemCorp is a private capital fund in London which lends to governments. We have not seen the term sheets. We only know that it is five years tenure but the details of the term sheet are not available. They borrowed from AFREXIM Bank for essential imports – all these borrowings must come through this House. We must have a full session on Government borrowings. What is this money intended to, what are the full terms? So we need the term sheets.
The other factual issue is of parastatals. If we do not transform parastatals, they are doing business as usual. I have a quotation just to illustrate to you the attitude of parastatals. I read the annual report of the Grain Marketing Board (GMB). By the way, it was put in our pigeon holes. On page 62, I just want to demonstrate the attitude of parastatals; there is an auditor’s item – those who are accountants here, there is an item of ‘Going Concern’. The auditor said this parastatal is not a ‘going concern’ which means that its liabilities cannot cover its assets. It cannot continue to operate, it is insolvent.
When the auditor gives you such a qualification, the management has to put a response to the auditor’s remark. This is what the board; said “The GMB Board made a loss of $32 million in 2016 and an accumulated loss of $209 million as at 31 March 2017. The Directors have assessed the ability of the board to continue operating as a going concern and believe that the preparation of these financial statements on a going concern basis is appropriate hence they agree.” They go on to say, “The board does not believe that the losses will have a significant impact on its ability to continue operating as a going concern because of the continued funding it receives from the Government” – [HON. MEMBERS: Aaah!] – That is the attitude of the parastatals. They said never mind, Government will continue to fund us. It is Father Christmas.
If we do not address the issue of parastatals, we are going to dig deeper holes because these are loss making entities whose excuse is that ‘Government will give us the money.’
To wind up, there is the issue of corruption. I do not need to belabour on the issue of corruption and how it affects the economy. It is a big issue.
I have talked about the issue of productivity – at the end of the day, this economy belongs to us as Zimbabweans. We have got a duty as legislators to make sure that we hold the Executive accountable. We do not want this economy to go back to neo-classical, pro-liberal programmes. We want a developmental approach and a transformative agenda for this country so that we can increase the welfare of our people. I so move. Thank you.
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