via Chinamasa: Govt may close parastatals 28 July 2014
FINANCE and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa has said government is considering shutting down non-performing state-owned companies because they have become a drag on the country’s economic recovery efforts.
State-owned companies have come under the spotlight in recent months after disclosures of executive compensation at several institutions showing that some earn monthly salaries running into hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Chinamasa, who is also chairman for the cabinet committee on parastatals, state enterprises and local authorities, questioned the calibre of managers at the institutions.
“We have started tackling problems at state enterprises and parastatals which used to contribute 40 percent but now are milking the economy as they are not contributing anything,” Chinamasa told the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Zimbabwe (ICAZ) conference at the weekend.
He said companies such as the Grain Marketing Board (GMB), Agricultural and Rural Development Authority (Arda) and the Cold Storage Company among others were struggling adding there was need to establish whether the parastatals should be allowed to continue operating.
“There is no production at all in these entities and the economy can’t grow. The challenge is to restore productivity and that also raises questions whether we have the calibre of managers who can drive them back to their feet.
“This is where we need forensic audit and thorough investigation whether there is a need for them to continue existing or not,” he added.
Early this year, government capped salaries of chief executive officers of state enterprises and parastatals at $6,000 per month following revelations that executives were awarding themselves packages of up to $535,000 per month at a time such entities were underperforming.
It adopted a new corporate governance framework and banned heads of public enterprises from holding office for more than eight years and bureaucrats from sitting on boards of such companies.
The new framework also compels state enterprises and parastatals to hold annual general meetings, which should be attended by representatives from the office of the president and cabinet, treasury, the parent ministry, the auditor and comptroller general and other stakeholder ministries.
COMMENTS
Ndokunonzi kupererwa chaiko. CHINAMASA DZOKAI MUNOTSVAGA DIESEL KUCHINHOYI.
how do you close municipalities where the likes of zvobgo have been underperforming for donkey years and chombo wants him there for ever. CHOMBO IS ALSO THERE FOREVER. MANY OF THE MINISTERS ARE RECICLED SINCE INDEPENDENCE.
ADA under smith performed well. now with this whiteman who wants to exploit the blacks under the nose of Mugabe (who claims to have fought colonial rule and the exploitation of blacks by the whites)ADA is doing well at Chisumbanje and Middle Sabi.
MAYBE CLOSE THE WHOLE GOVERNMENT CHINAMASA, THATS THE SOLUTION. ITS TRUE ALL GOVERNMENT INSTITUTIONS ARE NOT PERFORMING. THE PARASTATALS ARE ACTUALLY CONTROLLED BY MINISTRIES AND HOW CAN A NON PERFORMING MINISTRY SUPERVISE THE FUNCTIONS OF ITS PARASTATALS. IT WILL BE WORSE WHEN THOSE MINISTRIES THEN ASSUME THE FUNCTIONS OF THE PARASTATALS. IMAGINE MADE (MINISTER OF MECHANISATION WHO LIES SO MUCH ABOUT FOOD FOCUSTS) TAKING OVER ALL FARMING OPERATIONS IN ZIMBABWE. ITS A PITY.
Gwabu thank you for nailing it.
All agricultural based parastatals under MADE have nothing to showcase, even the parent ministry itself and that alone speaks volumes of the so called minister himself – a complete failure.
As for CHOMBO, its all in black and white, he has combed all local authorities to corruption.
lose them all, there is nothing left, Chinamasa and his buddies have stolen everything. Now they want the West to refund them so the theft can go on…
Just close the whole government and seek a new one with a clause stipulating that no one who has served in the old government is eligible to serve in the new. Cry beloved Zimbabweans, we surely are damned under the administration of these clueless fist sloganiers..all they know is loot, then blame everyone except themselves for the economic collapse of our country. Ooooh..
Some private companies are ready to run those parastatals efficiently provided the conditions are reasonable. Zim government must get serious about creating a conducive investment climate.
Retired army officers appointed to parastatals to loot.
If you know nothing about finance ,why cry to be the minister of finance.the president clearly said chinamasa cried for this portfolio so no excuses from him.pliz dont behave like gono who promised a turn round ,then made a mess n started blaming everything n every one .do your work.
In a normal society the C.E.O. would be held accountable or dismissed but in this warped country they get to be paid what they want even when they have so obviously failed. Crazy!!
Ssssssssshhhh Chinamasa GMB wants to buy maize from farmers
As in football if a team does not perform the manager takees the flack and goes even if it’s after a few months in office. 20 years at the head of a failing parastatal is ridiculous.
These people should never have been in these posts to start with. They were hand picked from nowhere as a handshake for war related favours to head Parastatals they knew nothing about. All they saw were dollar signs and had no clue how to grow the business.
Despite what Chinamasa says in his framework they are still in office bleeding the near comatose companies.
Its all hot air frankly
Mr chinamasa, sir, the first port of call is your ministry. It must be closed and you go kunorima mbambaira nema dhumbe kupurazi renyu. The next to close would be all the ministries because they have all been rendered dysfunctional. Thank you very much Sir, Minister of NO Finance.
Are you surprised Chinamasa you know very well that
the calibre of managers are zpf connected thieves who have nothing to offer to the economy but steal and advance your zpf agenda, you bomboclaat.
Nhai vaChinamasa ko vaane 34 years vachitonga asi iyo nyika ichidonha muchavaita sei?
Politicians make policies so don’t try to do what you can’t do by running the economy. The economy is run by Ecconomists, Chartered Accountants and Management Accountants. You ZANU fools you experiment with the economy test your own medicine.
All hot air from Chinamasa. They do not have the courage to shed off these institutions.
Zanu must just resign and chishakeshake house closed down. Shut down that symbol of misery.
Treasonous party .
Agree. Get rid of the whole government
The parastatal not worth keeping is ZANU PF , The rest we can fix once they have all been sent to chikarubi
If they are serious about doing anything then we need proof. Get rid of people who are bleeding the country dry immediately. We need to see actions already!!!
“He said companies such as the Grain Marketing Board (GMB), Agricultural and Rural Development Authority (Arda) and the Cold Storage Company among others were struggling adding there was need to establish whether the parastatals should be allowed to continue operating”. All these parastatals are to do with AGRICULTURE. Its not their fault, you know the root cause. There is no agriculture anymore in Zimbabwe. Better to ban the Ministry of Agriculture also.
just putting out the fires Chino, why not deal with the person holding the box of matches…….
Chinamasa should have dealt with parastals the moment he became minister. The signs were there that these entities were not performing.Even the president is aware.People are waiting for action not his “threats”to close non performing parastals.
with all due respect minister, what do you expect the GMB to do? the A2 farmer who submitted a business proposal to get a farm MUST be held accountable.
and ARDA, what can we say? it is indigenous run. many of the farms used to keep cattle, what happened? where did the cattle go? what changed? this is plain failure. zim has nothing going except corruption and inconsistent policies. fix those two and everything will fall into place. in fact many do not care who is in charge
Those were the last entities protected as collateral for re-mortgage purposes. It will be now easy for grace to expand her business ambitions.
Shut down all unprofitable parastatals before they bleed us dry.This should have been done a long time ago and government would have saved millions. Still, better late than never!
bhola egedhini kkkkk cheat the economy mr minister
Long overdue shut them down and stop the thieving gangsters.
kkkk chinamasa uri kuchema vane 20 years chete ko uyo ane 33 achimamira nyika. At the end of the day mugabe is the ceo of the country. What do you expect the ceo of gmb to do when mugabe and his buddies are not producing crops. Hanti ndivo vakatora minda. So before we close these boards we need to face the truth.
Minister Chinamasa should know that it is not the parastatals which are under performing but the ignorant and inexperienced former army generals leading these parastatals clueless of how to manage parastatals. GMB is an important parastatal to the viability of agriculture. Do not close GMB but remove and replace the entire GMB management and Board and, replace them with experienced former employees of parastatals who climbed up to management from shop floor to management positions. GMB has been under “bayawabaya” management style for nearly a decade. Get rid of all the riffraff management in GMB.
And they said they will create 2.5 million jobs yet they are creating 3.5 million jobless inocent zimbabweans. Where are we going realy with this kind of situation. This gvnt is clueless they dn even knw hw to revive the economy. Zimbabwe z at edge any time soon its falling. They are busy looking for Jukwa , will Jukwa revive the economy ? If these guys fail to admit that they failed we are going nowhere
Its noble idea Cde Minister because history has proved it works ,e.g. Margret Thatcher’s Privatisation programme. We are keeping something that is now irrelevant ,the world is moving fast if we don’t change with times we wont survive, e.g. government is holding onto Kingston’s book shops what really do we need these ,Zupco for instance has lost relevance in the new system government is guaranteeing loans for 500 buses nearly every5 years but nothing is coming out, and these parastatals that is where money is siphoned you cant siphoned direct from treasury.
Companies like telone and Net one should be privatised but however Potraz should be given more resources to supervise and fund research programmes am saying gvt should now concerntrate on regulatory bodies and Agencies.