Zimbabwe’s Finance Minister says “I sleep well” because I have great optimism to turn around the country’s fortunes

Q & A:

HON. SEN. MARAVA: I want to thank you very much Mr. President. My question is directed to the Minister of Finance and Economic Development, with the rate at which corruption has risen in this country and the loss the country has suffered, for example, Chiadzwa talk of the US$15 billion, the PSMAS issue and many more such instances where the loss has been incurred and the culprit is going scot free; do you foresee the country coming out of this quagmire and become financially competitive again on the world market?

THE MINISTER OF FINANCE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT (HON. CHINAMASA): Very much, I foresee, I do.  In fact what makes me happy and sleep well is that I have great optimism that we have an opportunity to turn around the fortunes of this country.  I am fully conversant and aware of the challenges that we are facing because first and foremost, it is important to understand scientifically what the challenges are because unless you understand the correct and true nature of your problem, you cannot come up with strategies to overcome and sort out that problem.

I think Government is fully aware of the challenges facing this economy and has adopted strategies.  It is adopting and implementing strategies and these strategies are at various stages of implementation.  Where I differ with a lot of people is that, all of us have a very short term view of solutions.  We all think that all solutions should come tomorrow.  I do not share that optimism.  What I believe needs to be done is, once you analyse a problem such as corruption, you take steps to rid this society of that menace.  To expect that overnight, when in fact corruption may already be embedded in the blood of our people, including maybe in the blood of even these distinguished Hon. Members, I think is to expect too much.

Government is taking steps and I can just to mention one or two.  We have taken steps, for instance, to fight corruption in ZIMRA because generally, importation at the border post is a source of corruption.  We  have taken steps basically, to introduce measures to fight that corruption which includes introducing CCTV at the border post, introducing a cargo tracking system for cargo that is declared at the border and destined say for Malawi, Zambia and DRC, which currently, we suspect is being dumped in Zimbabwe.  We have also taken many steps to help improve the systems.

Next week, before a committee chaired by the Hon. Vice President here, we are also going to present our Public Corporate Governance Bill which will help sort out a lot of the challenges that we are facing in the parastatals, the State owned companies.  There, we want to ensure that systems are put in place to prevent corruption.

I want to repeat what I have said elsewhere, Mr. President Sir, that corruption is a very complex crime.  It is not like murder and theft.  Corruption is different in that the briber and the person who has been bribed have both benefited and they are most unlikely to report each other to the authorities.  When they do so, it is because one of them has been short-changed.  So, what is critical in fighting corruption is to put in place systems that are transparent, that make management accountable to the shareholders.  Thank you.

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