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Lloyd Gumbo Mr Speaker Sir
Opaqueness in the handling of public funds will always leave big room for speculation with huge figures thrown around about how much State-linked entities are making.
Reluctance by the concerned organisations to declare how much they are making has not helped matters because Zimbabweans including officials in strategic offices are also shooting from the hip about those figures.

For instance, Zimra boss Gershem Pasi recently claimed the Zimbabwe Republic Police was collecting between US$3 million and US$7 million at roadblocks per month.
Never mind the vitriol he got from the force after that.

But the issue is that where there is no accountability and transparency, at least to the public, we are bound to think that these institutions are collecting as much as half the total National Budget.

Pasi raised a very important point when he appeared before Parliament last month when he said: “It is time we look at how we run our Government finances and have all revenue go through one channel because US$3 million to US$7 million is collected per month through roadblocks — and we are not talking of what goes into police pockets, but at the end of the month, Treasury wants money to pay salaries for the same police from Zimra, yet we do not get their collections accounted for.

“We also indicated it will not make good sense to have another agency like Zinara collecting toll fees because they did not have the infrastructure to collect and now we hear they want to increase toll fees. It is another wasteful process and it was better to have our revenue co-ordinated in one place.”

Never mind that the figures have been disputed, the issue is that there is need for all Government departments that collect public money to surrender it to the Consolidated Revenue Fund to allow Treasury to be the central disburser.

Our legislators have the power to ensure that the law is followed to the letter than rely on directives that are made through circulars.

If the law demands that all revenue collecting departments forward it to the Consolidated Revenue Fund, so be it.

Yes, they had about seven years of convenient breach of the law given the prevailing environment then but now is the time we live by the law.

Our dear MPs should not be crybabies but should take the bull by the horns and demand that the law be followed.

Only the other week, we heard from Member of Parliament to Member of Parliament, from Chief Whip to Chief Whip, from even the unusual quarters of MPs who prefer to be quiet during the course of the term of office – “dignified quietude” – standing up to say something about resource constraints and the need to channel resources to the Constituency Development Fund.

MDC-T Chief Whip Innocent Gonese went to great lengths to explain how a Member of Parliament is supposed to be father, mother, elder sister, sugar daddy and sugar mummy of the constituency.

Zanu-PF MP for Mutasa South Irene Zindi went to the extent of reading a text message from one student from her constituency who wanted assistance.

The list is endless. Hon Chinotimba the other day was furious that “Hatiwani kana cent zvaro, rearawenzi” (We are not getting any allowances).

This begs the question whether the Honourable Members themselves are doing enough to help their cause.

If they want to help their cause, the starting point would have been to set their minds to holistically look at the problems besetting their plight.

A simple definition of Treasury is that it is a Government department related to finance and taxation, a place where currency or precious items is/are kept.

And in Zimbabwe, we have a vision of Treasury being that of “the centre of excellence in macro-economic policy formulation, co-ordination and stewardship of public resources to achieve sustainable socio-economic growth and development”.

But here we are, with a Treasury that is not capacitated with the money that is required to ensure that it is equitably distributed to the whole populace.

And the irony is that it hits the MPs first, the representatives of the people.

MPs should be asking themselves why? Forget the little interrogation escapades they make on police on how they are using the money from roadblocks and allegedly lining their own pockets and their seniors.

That’s a good move, yes, but not good enough. It makes a lot of summarised mockery to hear them bemoan that they should be having tea and biscuits and water in their meetings, but the money to buy that is not just there.

Treasury has no money. Period!
There is no money in Treasury. But as they make rounds in their schools, they find that a stop at a primary school is a painful laughter to see teachers, groundsmen and the like having a mixture of Cremora and Ricoffy and a layer of margarine.

This is the situation that we are in and legislators should understand that they are themselves to blame. Their mission should have been to empower Treasury to collect revenue and allow for its distribution. Period!

This situation would have allowed them to have a greater say in the management of these resources, and by extension, themselves being the biggest and the tallest beneficiaries.

There are institutions that are making money but are not forwarding it to Treasury.

Take, for example, State universities who pride themselves in having enrolments that are more than 15 000 charging students levies of at least US$500 into thousands of dollars per semester.

Multiplying the number of students by a conservative figure of US$500 will show that universities cash in at least US$7,5 million per semester.

Agreed, universities should not be profit-making organisations but are they still guided by that thrust considering that they even demand that students who are on work-related learning pay full fees?

Some of these institutions end up going on shopping expeditions for closed mines and so forth in the powerless eyes of Treasury, Zimra and Parliament itself.

Instead of concentrating on the core business of teaching, they are busy thinking of projects that have nothing to do with the curriculum, for instance, brick-making.
The same universities that retain millions of dollars expect the cash-strapped Treasury to pay their salaries.

This also creates room for corruption as those in authority end up abusing the money by pocketing it.

We are told that secondary schools have taken that same spirit on board with headmasters refusing to be promoted to become education officers.

Mr Speaker Sir, why do our representatives bless the creation of islands of wealth when the rest of the nation is burning?

All revenue must go to Treasury so that it is disbursed from central Government according to need because some of these institutions end up abusing the money by engaging in unnecessary adventures.

You certainly cannot expect Zimra to be the only source of Government money given the demands at hand.

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