The Tendai Biti chaired Parliamentary Committee of Public Accounts has just uncovered another shocking revaluation of Command Agriculture funds abuse.
This came out in a parliamentary committee meeting held yesterday afternoon which revealed that the ministry paid over USD$400 million to a company called FCG on the pretext that it supplies fertilisers for Command Agriculture. However, during interrogation by the committee, officials from the ministry of finance said they don’t even know where this company’s location, who owns it, and it’s core business.
Biti had demanded that Finance Ministry provide the registered office for the FCG about the owner, shareholders and the company’s principal business, leading to the exposure by the ministry officials.
As if that was not enough, FCG was given job without even going to tender. The officials also admitted before the committee that they violated the constitution by paying loans that were acquired outside parliamentary approval.
Today’s exposure, come high in the heels of another recent revelation, that unearthed the massive 3 billion fraud under the same command agriculture program.
Details that emerged were that top ZANU-PF and government officials were the culprits. This includes the highest office in the land the ‘Office of the President and Cabinet.
Calls were that the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) should investigate the matter, however, this seems unlikely to happen, as ZACC chairperson Loice Matanda Moyo’s husband Sibusiso Moyo is one of the alleged beneficiary of the fraud.
Sibusiso Moyo is a retired Zimbabwean army general who is now serving as Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade in the Cabinet of Zimbabwe since November 2017. He was instrumental in the military coup that ended president Robert Mugabe’s rule, and installed the current President Emmerson Mnangagwa.