admin
to the recently established State Enterprises and Parastatals Advisory Council to enable it to commence operations, Cabinet Minister has said.
The council has a mandate to promote efficiency and good corporate governance in public entities.
State Enterprises and Parastatals Minister Gorden Moyo told New Ziana that the advisory council would begin implementing the Inter-Parastatal Debt Strategy.
“As government we are committed to see the retirement of debts to enable smooth operations of parastatals. Clearing the debts would make them attractive to investors as many SEPs are lined up for restructuring and privatisation,” he said.
Minister Moyo said debts owed to statutory bodies such as Zimra and NSSA were hindering privatisation of various entities as investors remained cautious.
“This is why our main focus would be to address such critical areas first,” he said.
Minister Moyo said the money was supposed to have been disbursed in December but Treasury had to contend with other issues such as paying bonuses for civil servants.
He said currently all budget allocations were deposited into each parastatal’s account, leaving them to offset their individual debts but because of the high defaulting rate, some entities were now technically insolvent.
There are about 82 state owned entities, among them Air Zimbabwe, National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ), fixed line operator TelOne, Cold Storage Company (CSC), Grain Marketing Board (GMB), Zimbabwe United Passenger Company and Zesa Holdings.— New Ziana
Online Reporter