THE police and the Registrar-General’s Department this week came under spotlight in Parliament where Members of Parliament called on the two institutions to remit whatever revenue they collected to Treasury.
Report by Veneranda Langa
The legislators said more than 30% of the country’s revenue was being collected by several government agencies, but the money did not find its way into State coffers.
The calls were made during debate of a motion by Magwegwe MP Felix Magalela Sibanda seeking to compel government departments and parastatals to remit all revenue to Treasury.
“I left Bulawayo yesterday and was greeted nearly every 10 kilometres by roadblocks and I have taken statistics in Bulawayo and found out that commuter omnibus operators pay R500 000 rands spot fines per day and all these monies should be sent to Treasury,” said Magalela Sibanda.
“I have also visited the Registrar-General’s department where thousands of people queue for $257 and $50 passports per day, but where does all this money go to?” he said.
Sibanda alleged the RG’s office and Police could be making money as big as the budget of Lesotho.
Recently the Anti-Corruption Trust of Southern Africa claimed the ZRP was the most corrupt department in the region.
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Seconder of the motion, Zengeza West MP, Collen Gwiyo said these departments were in breach of the country’s Constitution.
“The fact is that there is laxity on the part of the Executive in terms of complying with the Constitution of Zimbabwe regarding revenue collection.”
Gwiyo said the permission given the Zimbabwe Republic Police and the RG’s offices to keep money they collected should be cancelled as it was meant to be operational only during the Zimbabwe dollar era to cater for runaway inflation.
“Our concern through this motion is that the purpose of the moratorium has outlived its usefulness because we are now in a multicurrency environment where the prejudices of the Zimbabwe dollar are no longer an issue. It is high time revenue is remitted to Treasury,” he said.
Kambuzuma MP, Willias Madzimure said the problem was the absence of a proper revenue collection system, adding that cash collections should be banned.
“More than 30% of our revenue is being collected by several agencies that do not remit the collections to Treasury. The problem is that in the absence of a system that makes these entities accountable, it opens them to a lot of corruption,” said Madzimure.
He said even if there was a provision that these departments should keep a certain percentage of cash, that percentage should be allocated to them by Treasury.
Bulawayo South MP Eddie Cross said ZRP’s actions were an outright defiance of President Robert Mugabe’s recent call to stop corrupt tendencies on roads.
“When the President made a very strong statement, the roadblocks were withdrawn for two to three days but they are now back with a vengeance. When I was travelling from Bulawayo to Harare the other day, I came across 22 roadblocks,” said Cross.
Legislators also said Marange Resources under the Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe was 100% owned by government, and there was no excuse for failure to pay civil servants using money from the country’s natural resources.
