PARLIAMENTARY Portfolio Committee on Mines and Energy chairman Edward Chindori-Chininga, has rapped Treasury for allocating a paltry $80 000 for minerals monitoring and surveillance programmes, saying the money was inadequate to stop smuggling of precious minerals.
By our Bureau Chief
In a post-Budget review report released by the committee last week, Chindori-Chininga accused the government of being insincere in plugging leakages of minerals.
“It is an open secret that smuggling of precious minerals in Zimbabwe is rife and prejudices to fiscus,” he said in the report.
“Yet meager funds have been allocated and disbursed for monitoring and surveillance.
“A total of $80 000 was disbursed for monitoring and surveillance against millions of dollars lost through smuggling and leakages.”
He said the Mines and Mining Development ministry needed to be adequately resourced to carry out inspections of mines and check on compliance to improve accountability on mineral production and sales.
“This entails that the ministry needs to be mobile,” Chindori-Chininga said.
- Chamisa under fire over US$120K donation
- Mavhunga puts DeMbare into Chibuku quarterfinals
- Pension funds bet on Cabora Bassa oilfields
- Councils defy govt fire tender directive
Keep Reading
“The ministry requires 56 vehicles, but for the year 2013 only $15 000 has been allocated for vehicles and this is not enough to buy even one new vehicle. Currently, of the 54 vehicles at its disposal, 24 are not roadworthy. Eight are damaged and 19 are serviceable.”
He said this situation meant that the government continued to lose huge sums of revenue through illegal mining, under-declaration of production by miners and illegal marketing of minerals due to poor monitoring and surveillance.
Chindori-Chininga said although there had been an increase in mining activities by about 12%, the committee was unable to ascertain whether the increase was “a positive one taking into account the fact that over the years the ministry had been struggling to lure skilled personnel such as metallurgists and geologists due to unattractive remuneration packages”.
