Maravi

(TALKZIMBABWE) Parly speaker in US$6 000 scandal

COMMENT - If this is to continue, people will rightly look back at the period of ZANU-PF rule as corruption free. When a party comes to power with no other ideology than that 'it is their turn', and when they come to power over the dead bodies of their compatriots, economic sanctions and national destruction, what can you expect of them in terms of morality and ethics? Throw in obvious selfhatred and reference to all things white, and you have a recipe for exploitation and corruption that Zimbabwe has not seen before. Their platform is one of sucking up to corporate capital, and stepping on their compatriots on the way to the top. They are foreign funded, foreign directed, and have no empathy with ordinary Zimbabweans. Unlesss they are stopped, they are going to abuse state assets until there is nothing left.

Parly speaker in US$6 000 scandal
TSM/TZG reporters
Sun, 27 Sep 2009 15:00:00 +0000

THE Parliament of Zimbabwe has pampered the Speaker of the House of Assembly, Lovemore Moyo, with a lavish 12-month stay in various executive suites costing about US$6 000 a month at the five-star Meikles Hotel in Harare, it has emerged.

It is understood that Moyo had been staying at the luxury hotel since he took over as Speaker of the House at the end of August last year and only checked out at the beginning of September this year after Parliament secured a house to rent for him at US$1 800 per month.

Before he moved out of the plush hotel, Treasury, through the Minister of Finance, Tendai Biti, allegedly bought the Speaker furniture worth US$30 000 for his house. Treasury sources confirmed the purchase of the furniture last Thursday.

Last Tuesday, the Clerk of Parliament, Austin Zvoma, confirmed that Moyo was staying at the Meikles Hotel after Parliament failed to secure “suitable” accommodation for him in the capital.

The clerk went on to reveal that Parliament had recently paid more than US$10 000 in bills for the Speaker’s stay at the hotel. He said Parliament to date owed more than US$400 000 to service providers including hotels. Repeated efforts to get comment from Moyo over his alleged lavish stay were in vain.

However, investigations by The Sunday Mail newspaper established that he was booked in different suites in the northern wing of the hotel that cost US$201 per night during his lengthy stay. The amount included bed and breakfast only.

“The suites were permanently booked under him for that period even if he did not sleep at the hotel. That was the arrangement so that he was always assured of his accommodation whenever he came to Harare for Parliament business,” said a source at the hotel.

It costs at least US$15 to buy lunch at the hotel while dinner costs around US$18. Drinks and laundry services are also charged separately. The rate of US$201 per night meant that in a month of 30 days, the bill was US$6 030. A 12-month stay saw the bill shoot up to US$72 360, an amount that would have been enough to buy a decent house for the Speaker.

It is understood that the Speaker’s stay at the hotel was revealed after Parliament accused the co-chair of the Parliamentary Select Committee on the new constitution, Douglas Mwonzora, of refusing to surrender a vehicle that had been hired for him to carry out his duties.

Mwonzora was said to have accrued a bill of over US$7 000 and Parliament had refused to settle it. Parliament sources said the issue was, however, sorted out promptly after Mwonzora threatened to “spill the beans” regarding the Speaker’s stay at Meikles Hotel. Despite the lavish spending, Zvoma last week said Parliament’s demands “far outweigh resource allocation”.

He said Moyo was staying in the hotel whenever he came to Harare on official business but the post of Speaker was a full-time job that required him to stay in Harare.

When an MP is chosen as Speaker of the House of Assembly, he leaves his constituency to become an employee of Parliament.

Unlike the Members of Parliament who stay in their constituencies and only come to Harare when Parliament sits, the Speaker, as a full-time employee of the House, is required to report for duty even when Parliament was not sitting.

The revelations of the wasteful spending by Parliament has shocked some MPs who for the first time in history have gone for almost a year without receiving their allowances from the House.

Parliament should provide sitting allowances together with mileage, food and accommodation allowances whenever MPs come to Harare on official business.

“Honestly this is shocking to me because we have suffered the humiliating experience of being turned away by some one-star hotels because of unsettled bills. Some of these cheap hotels are refusing to accept vouchers from Parliament because Parliament owes them some money.

“While we are being humiliated like this, we hear that the Speaker was staying in a five-star hotel for almost a year. You honestly tell me that Parliament couldn’t find accommodation for him for all those months?” questioned an MDC-T legislator who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Another legislator from MDC-M added: “Its shocking that while we have been subjected to all this humiliation and while we understood that Parliament is broke, the Speaker has been staying like a king in a five-star hotel. I can’t understand this shocking insensitivity and poor leadership.”

An MP from Zanu-PF said: “For a Speaker coming from a party that said a lot about the suffering of the people and about instituting a new type of politics based on transparency, responsibility and accountability, this Meikles fiasco is most disappointing for Zimbabweans.

“What is even more worrying is that the MDC-T leadership was aware of this wasteful spending. We know that they were frequent visitors to these luxurious suites.

“Instead of being outraged, they became part of the wasteful expenditure. The Minister of Finance, Biti who wants to pause as a serious custodian of public funds, knew about it but did nothing. On one hand he is telling the country that Treasury is broke but he authorises the release of US$30 000 to buy furniture for the Speaker. What exactly is going on here?” said the MP. -- TSM/TZG

Labels: LOVEMORE MOYO, MDC CORRUPTION

posted by MrK @ 4:46 PM