Former Finance Minister, advocate Tendai Biti, has demanded that Finance Minister, Professor Mthuli Ncube, explains the real use of the $448 million put under the “Others” category.
Biti who chairs the Public Accounts Committee said that it does not make sense that at a time when the country has no energy, the minister used the money on unstated items. The MDC vice president noted:
Between January and June 2018, and these are figures from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Monetary Policy Statement of October, the country received through export surrender requirements of US$3,3 billion which is a lot of money in US dollars.
Of that 15%, which is around $570m was used to import diesel, 8% was used to import unleaded petrol, $111m which is 3% was used to pay for energy, 2% or $64m was used to import soya beans, $62m was used to import rice which is 61%, which totals $2,47 billion, and then $448m was used to pay for ‘others’ which has not been described and we want to know what ‘others’ stands for.
Biti also revealed that another $15,69m, which is almost 60% of the foreign currency, was used on unspecified items between January and February 2019 after the country had received foreign currency worth $707m.
Accounting for every cent becomes a critical issue for Zimbabwe particularly at this juncture when the country has a huge deficit in food, fuel, electricity and medicines.
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