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their salaries.
The facility would have seen most of the lawmakers paying a monthly instalment of US$1 000.
Parliament’s welfare committee had negotiated a facility where each legislator would secure a loan to the tune of US$30 000 to buy a double cab vehicle.
The Treasury’s failure to guarantee the facility also did not help matters as most MPs felt that they would be heavily exposed should they fail to repay the money.
If the deal had sailed through, most legislators would have ended up with three cars after they received vehicles from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and from Treasury’s vehicle loan scheme.
One legislator said: “The facility was very unattractive. It was very expensive, given our meagre salaries. We could not sustain it hence it had no takers.”
Another MP concurred: “It had no takers. How can we service a US$1 000 instalment. That was an ambitious programme from the onset. Our leaders should have envisaged that the deal is skewed against us, in terms of what it would entail.”
Welfare Committee secretary Mr Ward Nezi confirmed that the deal failed to take off.
Mr Nedzi, however, sought to downplay the issue raised by other legislators that it was not enticing.
“The facility failed to work well. There is no money in the market. Money is scarce. We will meet next year and re-engage the financial institution and see how we can structure the deal,” said Mr Nezi who is also Murehwa West MP (MDC-T).
He said they had not pursued the issue of Government involvement since they realised that it had limited fiscal space.
Online Reporter