Newly appointed minister of Cybersecurity, threat detection and mitigation Patrick Chinamasa will no longer appear before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Environment to respond to allegations of nepotism. This comes after Chinamasa was moved from the ministry of finance in the latest cabinet reshuffle. The allegations came after the administration of the Afforestation Fund was moved from the Forestry Commission and placed under the Tobacco Industry Marketing Board (TIMB). Chinamasa’s wife Monica is the chairperson of the TIMB.
Environment Committee chairperson Wonder Mashange said:
As a committee, we want to get accountability for the Afforestation Fund because we asked TIMB to give us proof of where they got the mandate to administer the Afforestation Fund, but they have failed to produce the proof and we are still waiting for them to do so.
We will just give the Finance minister (Chombo) some time to settle and then we will summon him to appear before the committee to clarify the issue because we can no longer call Chinamasa to do so because he is no longer the responsible minister.
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