via Minister: State firms not declaring assets – NewZimbabwe 21/01/2016
ACTING finance minister Walter Chidhakwa says state enterprises are defying a government directive issued to them last year to declare their assets, liabilities and proposed profits.
Chidhakwa said this at a State Enterprise and Parastatals Reform Baseline data survey breakfast meeting in Harare Wednesday.
He said the reluctance by the loss making parastatals to update government on their operations was costing the state.
“In particular, we need to know what income we can expect from state enterprises and parastatals dividends and what loses we may need to cover in the coming year,” Chidhakwa said.
“The government also needs to know what contingency liability we carry in the portfolio and this is essential if we are to plan for the national budget credibly and manage it consistently during the year.”
Presenting the 2016 national budget late last year Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa made a provision for parent ministries to meet the costs of parastatals which fall under them.
“But up to now the challenge is that government has not yet had up to date or complete information of these state enterprises and parastatals and fundamentally it is not acceptable to continuously make transfers to state enterprises and parastatals unless we have baseline data of the concerned state enterprises’ assets and liabilities,” said Minister Chidhakwa.
The parastatals which used to declare dividends and contribute over 40% to the national income are now relying on government for their operations.
Most of them collapsed due to corruption and bad corporate governance.
Among the once viable state enterprises which have collapsed are the Cold Storage Company (CSC) National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ), Air Zimbabwe, the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) and the Grain Marketing Board (GMB).
Senior managers at most of these ailing parastatals have been accused of looting fraudulently, awarding themselves hefty salaries and personal loans at the expense of their struggling entities.
Other accusations include the flouting of tender procedures, tax evasions and money laundering.
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