James Maridadi, another MDC legislator who has been adept at exposing the rot in government, also admitted that they could not identify the owners of Farmers World.
“I want to put the issue of Farmers World into perspective,” he told the House. “As government or as Parliament, we were not able to know who the owners of Farmers World are. So, what has happened, Mr. Speaker, is that there is a group of people that call themselves Farmer’s World.
“They have borrowed money from China Bank, US$11 million. They have not been able to give that money back to the bank and our government has paid that loan on behalf of Farmers World to the tune of US$11 556 000. What it means is that this is tax payers money which has been used to liquidate a debt of private citizens, private people, to the tune of US$11 million.”
He said the US$11 million could have paid some of the nurses whose salaries were delayed last month, or could have been used for Parliament’s outreach programme, or it could have funded irrigation projects.
Mpariwa said the total loan given to Farmers World was $23 million but there were no loan agreements relating to the debt.
“In the absence of contractual documentation, there is risk that government may fail to recover the loaned amounts thereby prejudicing public funds,” she said.
“It was said the loans were paid on behalf of beneficiaries of agricultural machinery, equipment and implements. The Accountant General advised the committee that the loan was inherited from RBZ debt and payment to China Exim Bank was important for government to retain the country’s credit worthiness with the Bank and ensure continued lines of credit.”
Mpariwa said treasury should explain fully why the company was advanced the loan when it had failed to pay back the initial loan.
The committee gave treasury until 30 September to explain.
Editor’s note: Do you honestly believe no one knows who owns Farmers World? Maybe you do. If you know the owners please write to: [email protected]
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