Presenting a paper during the Zimbabwe National Chamber of
Commerce (ZNCC) 2021 annual congress in Victoria Falls yesterday, Zacc
chairperson Loice Matanda-Moyo said corruption was causing serious damage to
the economy and should be nipped in the bud.
“I think the private sector is the major culprit of
corruption in Zimbabwe,” Matanda-Moyo said.
“We only started in government because we realised that if
we started with the private sector, there was going to be an outcry to say, why
start with us not the government. Private sector’s corruption is the one which
is really causing damage to the economy.”
She said most companies were evading paying taxes through
understating the value of goods.
“That is why you misstate and then again you start saying
this machinery cost US$20 000 when it cost US$2 000. When you export you then
minimise the prices. Why, because you do not want to pay the duty associated
with that exportation,” she said.
Matanda-Moyo said they carried out an investigation into
the export of tobacco to the Netherlands and found out that tobacco companies
misstated export figures.
The Zacc boss said corruption was costing the world about
US$1 trillion through bribes while an estimated US$2,6 trillion is stolen
annually through Acorruption.
She said 5% of the global gross domestic product, according
to the United Nations, was lost in corruption and 10 times the amount of
official assistance is corruption.
In Zimbabwe, according to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, we
are losing between US$1,7 billion and US$1,9 billion through illicit dealings
annually.
“We really need to do something about it,” she said, adding
that “we are now coming to the private sector. I think we have already started
arresting companies for smuggling of goods”.
Matanda-Moyo revealed that chief executives of some banks
in Zimbabwe were not banking money in the very banks they were leading.
We carried out that survey. So, if a CEO of a bank does not
have confidence in his or her own institution, who then is going to bank money
in those banks? Nobody,” she said.
She said since 2019, Zacc has had 12 convictions on
corruption cases, recovered 80 vehicles and one house, adding that it was also
assisting the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority to recover taxes.
Speaker of National Assembly Jacob Mudenda said to recover
economically amid COVID-19, Parliament needed to enact legislation that
promoted a digital economy.
ZNCC president Tinashe Manzungu said the 7,8% economic
growth forecast for the country was being threatened by a volatile parallel
market exchange rate.
The ZNCC conference, which started yesterday and ends
tomorrow, is running under the theme Managing Disruptive change. Newsday
0 comments:
Post a Comment