A SEEMINGLY innocuous transaction involving the transit of dried abalone fish to China has raised a stink after a consignment worth US$90 000 disappeared without a trace between two Government departments — the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority and the Department of Veterinary Services.
Source: Rotten fish deal raises stink | The Sunday Mail Aug 13, 2017
Africa Moyo
As investigations to establish facts surrounding the deal continue after local agent Mr Kuda Banda lodged a complaint with authorities, questions are now being asked about the transparency and efficiency of some Government agencies.
The Sunday Mail Business gathered that Zimra in June last year stopped the consignment, which was in transit from South Africa to China, at Harare International Airport, for inspection.
It is believed that is was then forwarded to the Department of Vet Services.
According to Mr Banda, a local agent of the South African-based firm, no update has been received since then, and the Chinese customers are now anxious.
Industry best practice, he said, meant that there ought to have been formal communication about the fate of the parcel in order to help manage business-client relations.
“I am told that Zimra later handed over the fish to the Veterinary Services department and since then, I have been unable to get an update on where to find the fish or what happened to them.
“But whatever happened, I feel that the agencies should have at least offered a formal explanation so that both the suppliers and customers could be informed timeously in order to allow for efficient decision making.
“International companies do not deal by word of mouth, they need formal documents. Also, there is need for closure,” explained Mr Banda.
Veterinary Services department deputy director Dr Hardwork Machakwa said Moonstone Investments, the company from which the 65 boxes of the product were confiscated, applied for the release of their product in December last year.
“This consignment was consisting of 65 boxes with a total of 1 430kg and meant for Hong Kong. A Mr Chinyuku (executive director of Moonstone) brought me some in-transit documents that he had obtained later. So we took the documents and said where is the consignment? We told him we didn’t have it and wanted it from him because we were aware that he wanted to ship the consignment using the documents. . .
“I talked to him yesterday (Thursday). . . and he said he later found out that the Abalone fish consignment was destroyed by Harare City Council,” he said
Efforts to get a comment from Zimra last week were fruitless as the head of corporate communications, legal and corporate services, Mr Canisio Mudzimu, was not reachable.
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