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Zvamaida Murwira Senior Reporter
Secretary for Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Mr Ringson Chitsiko says he does not know the salary structure and perks earned by senior managers at the Grain Marketing Board. Mr Chitsiko told the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development, chaired by Mbire MP Cde Cde David Butau (Zanu-PF), that he could not comment on salaries at GMB because he had no such information at hand.
Makoni West MP Cde Kudzanai Chipanga (Zanu-PF) had asked Mr Chitsiko what he was doing to deal with reportedly hefty salaries earned by GMB management when ordinary employees had not been paid for the past six months.
Makoni South MP Cde Mandi Chimene (Zanu-PF) said it was strange that a permanent secretary, who is the ministry’s chief accounting officer, did not know important issues like salary scales.
“Are you sure he is the permanent secretary Mr Chairperson? If he is, then I am shocked by his response – ‘I don’t know.’ Are you not one of those people accused of sleeping on duty?” she asked.
Cde Chipanga also asked what Government was doing to ensure that GMB’s silos, most of which are dilapidated, were refurbished in readiness for the bumper harvest the country was expecting.
Mr Chitsiko said they were doing little to repair silos owing to under-capitalisation because Treasury had inadequately funded the grain utility.
He said a Chinese firm had demanded US$7million upfront to partner GMB in refurbishing the silos.
“As for the hefty salaries that the management of GMB are purported to be earning, I am not sure that I can address that issue because really, I don’t know exactly what the top management is earning. I would not be able to answer that one, otherwise I would be lying,” said Mr Chitsiko. This drew the ire of legislators who rounded on him.
Cde Chipanga said if workers were owed salaries, grain collections for the coming marketing season would suffer not only from underfunding, but also because employees might withdraw their labour.
He said GMB general manager Mr Albert Mandizha had told the committee that they were making a marginal profit annually and he wondered why Mr Chitsiko complained of underfunding.
Legislators said GMB should not complain of underfunding because in addition to an allocation from Government, it also had a commercial division that sold products on the open market.
Lobengula MP, Mr Sam Sipepa Nkomo (MDC-T) said during his tenure as a Cabinet minister in the inclusive Government, Agriculture Minister Dr Joseph Made once told them that more than 100 000 tonnes of maize is lost every year because of poor storage owing to dilapidated silos at GMB.
Online Reporter