Maravi

COMMENT - Tendai Biti and the MDC are phonies and frauds.


Audit shows no diamond money missing, Biti left with egg in face
By: Ralph Mutema
Posted: Wednesday, March 16, 2011 2:26 am

FINANCE Minister Tendai Biti has been left with egg in face after his claims that diamond money had disappeared have been proved wrong following a verification and reconciliation of proceeds from diamond sales.

The exercises showed that nearly US$167 million has found its way into Treasury, despite Biti's claims that the funds had not been accounted for. Minister of Mines and Minerals Development Obert Mpofu immediately attacked Biti for acting like an auditor.

Mpofu said it was only proper for ministers - who are politicians - to leave professional work to professionals and stop grandstanding.
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"We want to allow professionals to do their work. Once we start to pretend to be auditors, this tends to be misunderstood.

"This (verification) has been done to the satisfaction of Cabinet," he said in apparent reference to suggestions by Minister Biti that some of the diamond proceeds could not be accounted for.

Biti and Mpofu had given conflicting statements over the actual amount the Government realised from diamond sales.

Biti had said there were discrepancies in the figures of the money Treasury received, prompting the verification and reconciliation.

Minister Mpofu said the verification and reconciliation has been completed and the two ministers met on Monday to discuss the outcome before reporting to Cabinet at its weekly meeting yesterday.

"(Monday) we met with Minister Biti who acknowledged and accepted the reconciliation of the US$174 million and this was reported to Cabinet today (Monday). That matter has been put to rest," Minister Mpofu said at a Press conference on Tuesday.

Biti did not attend the press conference to clarify his position.

Mpofu said the money should be used to improve the salaries of civil servants as pledged by President Mugabe in January.

"The objective (of the verification and reconciliation) was to address the plight of our civil servants.

"The civil servants' plight needs our united attention.

"We assist the Ministry of Finance to realise some income which will help address the challenges of our nation and the plight of civil servants and MPs," he said.

After Biti had been proved wrong, he changed his stance and raised new issues relating to mechanisms of controlling the diamond money.

Biti and his MDC-T side in the inclusive Government want the diamond money used for debt servicing, instead of paying civil servants.

MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai confirmed this in his address to the Euro Money investment conference in Harare last week.

Officials from the Ministries of Finance, Mines and Mining Development, Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation and the Minerals Marketing Corporation took part in the reconciliation.

Zimra Commissioner-General Mr Gershem Pasi was also consulted and he submitted figures from his organisation.

It was discovered that statutory obligations in the form of corporate tax, VAT and withholding tax were being incorrectly classified as diamond proceeds by minister Biti.

DIAMOND MONEY FROZEN BY U.S.

Meanwhile, Biti's double standards have been exposed as has remained mum on the freezing of US$2 million realised from sales of local minerals and deposited locally into a Stanbic Bank account by the United States’ central bank, the Federal Reserve.

The funds were frozen on the grounds that the two account holders — Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe (MMCZ) and Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC) — are under US sanctions.

This puts paid to claims by that sanctions are "targetted at individuals" in President Robert Mugabe's government.

The MMCZ and ZMDC employ hundreds of employees whose livelihoods depend on their viability.

posted by MrK @ 2:52 PM