via Expelled MPs owe Parly US$1 million – The Sunday Mail Mar 22, 2015
Parliament has instituted proceedings to force 22 former legislators to repay nearly US$800 000 advanced as vehicle loans during their short stint in the legislative assembly.
Twenty-one MDC-T MPs and one Zanu-PF legislator, Didymus Mutasa, were recently expelled from the House of Assembly and must pay back loans that would ordinarily have been serviced over the course of their five-year terms (2013-208).
Another expelled Zanu-PF MP, Themba Mliswa, was among a few legislators who turned down the US$35 000 per MP car loans extended to them last year.
The 21 ex-MPs from MDC-T were booted out of Parliament because they dumped their party and formed the United Movement for Democractic Change. The uncle-nephew pair of Mutasa and Mliswa was recalled from the House of Assembly after Zanu-PF expelled them from the party for fanning factionalist politics that sought to unconstitutionally remove President Mugabe from office.
Acting Clerk of Parliament Mr Kennedy Chokuda told The Sunday Mail that the expelled parliamentarians should repay the loans.
“The majority of the legislators secured vehicles from that initiative and were supposed to pay back the money during the five-year tenure of the Parliament,” he said.
“When they secured the vehicles under this revolving fund, the legislators signed contracts which stated that they will pay back the money. We are now working on modalities on how these expelled legislators will pay back the money because on average each of the 22 parliamentarians owes us US$35 000. Necessary steps will be taken for us to recover the money since they are no longer in Parliament.”
MPs are yet to start servicing the loans because Parliament has been unable to consistently pay them their sitting allowances. The expelled 22 legislators benefited from a US$12 million deal Government secured with Croco Motors that saw 290 legislators purchase all-terrain vehicles at a ceiling price of US$35 000 per MP.
Parliament – through Treasury – undertook to pay Croco Motors over eight months while the legislators would repay through deductions from their sitting allowances.
Now administrators at Parliament are crafting measures to recover the money.
COMMENTS
Biti ,sipepa kufurira vana hamunyari newewo kamudharaso solo madzore ndekwokutanga anoiwanepiwo mari yekubhadhara chikwereti chemota
THIS THING ABOUT PARLY BUYING CARS FOR MPS SHOULD STOP! ARE THEY COMPANY CARS! FOR WHAT JOB!
You are right and this latest move will teach our mps not to expect riches from parliament instead of serving the poor masses.Some of them have already damaged the vehicles,so they will pay for these broken vehicles.
Politics in Zimbabwe. Under normal circumstances, why would any community in this day and age choose to be represented in parliament by someone who cannot even buy him/her-self a car? What would such a person manage to do to ably represent or develop his/her constituency if they have failed to manage their own career? Once upon a time, parliament was not seen as a full time job; MPs were seen as being paid allowances to cover their costs during parliamentary sessions. They generally had their own successful careers; which is why a party would recruit them to represent them and their communities vote for them in the first place. Now its about your ability to dance like Shuvai, or to maim/kill the opposition like Tyson…