Govt blacklists 13 contractors

Business Writer/NewZiana

Finance and Economic Development Minister, Mthuli Ncube, this week announced that the government blacklisted 13 contractors for channelling funds to the illegal foreign exchange market as it steps up efforts to stabilise the local currency and contain inflation.
The blacklisting of the 13 companies, which is the second in five months, comes after the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe exposed the entities  for unlawful conduct.
The blacklisted companies include Casha Designs (Pvt) Ltd, Re-net Technologies (Pvt) Ltd, Malfran Investments (Pvt) Ltd, Difflock Construction (Pvt) Ltd, Staman Investments (Pvt) Ltd, Guide Marketing (Pvt) Ltd, Nodship Investments Pvt Ltd and Infinity Hire Pvt Ltd.
Others include Nomalanga Marketing Pvt Ltd, Gift Mwayers t/a Mwayera Transport Pvt Ltd, Mukota Haulage and Buses, Ofixmore Marketing Pvt Ltd and Blecia Investments.
“Having monitored various financial transactions with a view to plug parallel market dealings, the FIU has observed that these companies are siphoning their proceeds to the parallel market, thus triggering domestic inflationary pressures.
“Resultantly, Government has blacklisted the aforementioned companies so as to maintain stability in the foreign currency market and to curb inflation. In the same vein, the Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe will be advised to permanently remove the entities from the
list of potential service providers to government,” said Mthuli in a statement.
Last year, the FIU blacklisted 19 companies for fueling parallel market activities.
There have been concerns that government suppliers were fueling inflation as they bought the green back on parallel market after being paid.