ZWL$500bn saved as govt toughens stance on procurement

BUSINESS REPORTER

Treasury says the government has saved ZWL$500bn in expenditures after it intensified scrutiny on procurement by ministries, departments and agencies.

Last year, the government launched the value for money exercise after revelations that suppliers were overcharging and using the proceeds on the parallel market leading to the rout of the local currency.

In a statement on Friday, Finance and Economic Development minister Mthuli Ncube said observations from reviews conducted by Treasury revealed that “overpricing and forward pricing” has been a rampant practice across public sector contracts.

“Government has registered significant savings in expenditure s amounting close to half a trillion Zimbabwe dollars, thus providing the leverage to channel more resources towards capital expenditure,” Ncube said.

He said Treasury and the Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe have developed a national pricing index to guide all public sector institutions on the price ceilings in the various procurement categories.

To data, three categories have been issued relating to hotels and conferencing facilities, groceries and office provisions and stationery products and paper raw materials, Ncube said.

He said ZIMRA was conducting tax audits and assessments on companies blacklisted for overcharging the government.

Three companies have been removed from the blacklist having satisfied ZIMRA and settling tax penalties as well as satisfying the Financial Intelligence Unit on the integrity of financial transactions, Ncube said. Since November, about 32 contractors have been blacklisted for fuelling illegal parallel market activities.

 

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