Editorial Comment
Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa announced the government would cut its expenditure by 40 %.He also warned that those who imported clothes risked having those clothes confiscated by the state.
Whether this is achievable or not, time will tell. Some of the main areas that government is losing money are a bloated wage bill,
luxurious spending on officials, overpriced goods and services and unnecessary foreign travel.
As we already know the government’s wage bill gobbles up 80 percent of government revenue. President Mugabe has already announced that
government will give bonuses to its employees which undermine the pronouncements of this statement. On top of this, government has previously resisted any attempts to audit the payroll fuelling suspicions that the government has been paying ghost workers.
Secondly government has spent lavishly on vehicles and other luxuries for ministers, mps and other government employees. Zimbabwe has one of the biggest cabinets which gobble up millions in allowances, salaries and other benefits. President Mugabe has already shown that he’s not committed to trimming his bloated cabinet.Suggestions by Zimbabwe Revenue Authority Commissioner Geshem Pasi to do away with some unnecessary governmet institutions have fallen on deaf ears.
Thirdly the government has been overpaying for goods and services. Early this year the government mourned that Chinese contractors were overcharging for infrastructure projects in Kariba. With the tender processes and procedures not entirely transparent it is possible that government is losing mbillions of dollars in bad deals.
Another area of lavish spending is the President’s office with the President forever in aircrafts with a large entourage of aides. It is interesting to see how Mr Chinamasa will manage to convince the President to take it easy on the trips and save some money for the treasury.
Chinamasa has tried already to cut government spending by cutting civil servants bonuses but this was publicly opposed by President Mugabe during the Independence Day celebrations in April. This budget statement is therefore hot air unless if Chinamsa and ZANU PF have found a way of managing President Mugabe. He is the major stumbling block in the implementation of these budget plans.
On another note the government announced that it has banned the importation of second hand clothes. Most of the second hand clothes (mabhero) entering this country are doing so illegally through the porous border posts. The clothes come from Mozambique and everyone knows how these come into the country. In fact some ZANU PF members coming from Mozambique were arrested a few years ago for attempting to smuggle these clothes into the country.
However shops such fashion boutiques dotted around the country will continue to operate. Imports have grown from $3 billion to $3,1 billion and it is clear that banning second hand clothes but continuing to allow other shops to import clothes will be self defeating. Instead this statement could have announced ways of ensuring that the textile industry in this country is somewhat revived. These piecemeal solutions which target vendors and small players while allowing big players to operate will not work.
Minister Chinamasa certainly makes the right noises about everything but history has shown us that none of these measures will materialise as long as corruption is not addressed and if Robert Mugabe continues to stand in the way.
