THE Government has with immediate effect directed all
non-governmental organisations operating in the country who were giving aid in
the form of foreign currency to either buy food using the money and donate to
the beneficiaries or give out local currency.
This comes after Government outlawed the multi-currency
regime and restricted domestic transactions to local currency through Statutory
Instrument (SI) 142 of 2019, in an effort to enhance the affordability of goods
and services by the majority.
The Government recently had a meeting with the World Bank
and United Nations representatives as well as embassies in the country through
which humanitarian aid comes to deliberate on the matter and ensure that SI 142
is fully implemented.
In an interview, Local Government, Public Works and
National Housing Minister Cde July Moyo said the Government had a meeting with
the World Bank and United Nations representatives as well as embassies in the
country to discuss the matter.
“As you are aware I am the chairperson of the inter-Cabinet
Committee that deals with disaster and climate change, recently we had a
meeting with World Bank and United Nations representatives as well as
embassies. The Minister of Finance (and Economic Development, Professor Mthuli
Ncube) was there, the Minister of Public Service (Labour and Social Welfare Dr
Sekai Nzenza) was there as well as other ministries.
“We discussed how best we can get help as a country. We
told them that non-governmental organisations should stop giving beneficiaries
US dollars or any other foreign currency. If they so wish to give them money,
they should give them local currency.
The argument was we have removed the multi-currency regime
and restricted domestic transactions to local currency and most people in rural
areas to which most of the aid goes will not be able to use the money,” he
said.
Minister Moyo said there was also growing concern over
reports of abuse of food aid where officials in the Department of Social
Welfare are allegedly conniving with transporters to exorbitantly charge the
beneficiaries.
In the Midlands Province, such cases were rampant in Gokwe
where transporters are charging between $10 and $15 per individual for
transport.
Minister Moyo said the Government is seized with the matter
and will act decisively against the culprits.
“We heard that in Gokwe North a transporter charged $16 000
for one load. We also heard that they are allegedly acting in connivance with
some officials from the Department of Social Welfare. The report went to
Minister Sekai Nzenza who is responsible for those departments. We are seized
with the matter and we will soon make a collective decision as Cabinet to deal
with those issues and address the challenges,” he said. Sunday Mail
0 comments:
Post a Comment