Zimpapers Logo

VP Mnangagwa

Tendai Mugabe Senior Reporter
Government has ordered an investigation into the operations of French inspectorate company Bureau Veritas that was engaged by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce last year to assess the quality of imported goods before they enter the country.

Barely a year after it started operations, industry has raised a red flag questioning the value of services being offered by the company.

Stakeholders who attended a business review meeting organised by the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC) in Harare last week, complained to Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa that Bureau Veritas had actually compounded problems relating to the importation of goods.

In line with its terms of reference, Bureau Veritas, among other things, should ensure the provision of pre-shipment services of specific products in the country of export and issuance of certificates of conformity based on the national and international quality, safety, health and environment standards.

One of the stakeholders said: “They are just checking paperwork, which we can do on our own. Right now we are struggling to pay for imports. In line with the Rapid Results initiative which you said Government has adopted, why don’t you start by rapidly suspending Bureau Veritas?”

The stakeholders proposed that if the union with Bureau Veritas was to continue, they should pay them locally rather than depositing money into their foreign accounts, which in a way amounted to externalisation.

In response, VP Mnangagwa said Government had received numerous complaints against Bureau Veritas and a process was already in motion to rectify the problem.

“With regards to that particular issue, when the Ministry of Industry and Commerce brought the issue to Cabinet, we agreed as Cabinet that it was wrong,” he said.

“As we receive complaints about bottlenecks brought about by taking Bureau Veritas on board, we have asked the Ministry of Industry and Commerce to revisit and review this engagement and see how we can move forward.

“Either they adjust and remove the bottlenecks or we find some answer of doing business without them.

“Give as much information and complaints that you have so that we can see how this Bureau Veritas is constraining business in Zimbabwe.”

He said the engagement of Bureau Veritas was a collective Government decision but was subject to revision.

Government engaged the Paris-based company pending the establishment of the Zimbabwe Quality Standards Regulatory Authority to ensure that products imported into the country were verified prior to their shipment through a Consignment Based Conformity Assessment (CBCA) in a bid to reduce hazardous and substandard products from coming into the country.