A senior United States official working in Zimbabwe has
questioned development aid figures released recently by Finance Minister Mthuli
Ncube in the 2020 national budget statement, saying the funds are less than
what his country provided in the 2019 financial year.
In an interview in Masvingo on Tuesday, Deputy Ambassador
Thomas Hastings, said the amount of financial aid to Zimbabwe this year was
understated by the government.
“… They recently released the total amount of money that we
gave in 2019, it was about $330 million. So, it was a bit more than it was in
the budget report that’s the total amount that includes our work with PEPFAR
(U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief), it includes work that we
have provided this year for food relief, people who are faced with food
insecurity because of the drought and other causes it includes drought and any
other causes and it also includes the assistance that was given to people who
suffered the consequences of Cyclone Idai. So, putting all the numbers together
it was over $330 million this year.”
Thomas said Zimbabwean authorities should include all the
development aid provided by the United States in 2019.
“Well, it’s important to include all of the programs and
that’s why we recently put the information out there to make sure that the
total amount of our assistance was made on to the people of Zimbabwe.”
He could not be drawn to comment on suggestions that the
undervaluing of the development aid provided by the Zimbabwean government was
being deliberately done by President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government.
“I don’t know about that, you have to talk to the Ministry
of Finance about how they came up with all those numbers … when you take the
amount of work we do with health, with food assistance and Cyclone Idai and
emergency relief, that’s how much it totaled.”
In the budget statement, Ncube indicated that Zimbabwe this
year obtained development support from USA amounting to $252,722,653.
Information secretary Nick Mangwana and Finance Minister
Ncube were unavailable for comment as they were not responding to calls on
their mobile phones.
The Chinese government recently questioned figures
indicating that they provided only $3,631,500 for development support instead
of over $136 million.
In response, the Zimbabwean government promised to look
into the issue. In a statement posted on the Ministry of Information, Publicity
and Broadcasting Services’ Twitter handle, the government said, “Govt has noted
the query raised by @ChineseZimbabwe regarding bilateral aid figures captured
in the 2020 National Budget Statement. Necessary consultations are underway to
establish a common accounting position. We thank the Chinese Govt for their
support.” voa
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