Zimbabwe Parliament calls for investigation of Ministry of Lands and Agriculture staff within 90 days

Zimbabwe Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee has recommended that the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission investigate the disposal of inputs and assets to employees of the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries and Rural Resettlement within 90 days.

The committee said this in its report on the ministry’s audits for the years ending 31 December 2017 and 2018 in which it said there was a serious conflict of interest within the ministry as many employees were beneficiaries of the land reform programme but at the same time they were responsible for distributing agricultural inputs under various government programmes.

In the report tabled in Parliament yesterday, the committee said that ZACC must investigate, within 90 days, the disposal of inputs and assets to staff and personnel at the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Water, Fisheries and Rural Resettlement connected with the following:

1. Disposal of equipment from Farmer’s World;
2. Disposal of inputs and equipment from the Chinese US$15 million which comprised 36 tractors, 30 motor vehicles and 200 motor bikes; and
3. Acquisition of agricultural inputs under various government programmes (Command Agriculture and Presidential Input Scheme) for 2017 and 2018.

The committee also said that a specialised unit with qualified personnel must be set up within 90 days to monitor conflict of interest issues, particularly areas around staff benefiting from government agricultural support programmes.

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