Parly denies fuel price anomaly

Farirai Machivenyika Senior Reporter
Parliament has denied buying fuel for parliamentarians at more than the Government-prescribed rates, saying an exchange note circulating on social media platforms implying that the institution bought the commodity at a higher price was for a private transaction involving an individual MP.

The fuel exchange note being circulated implies that Parliament was buying fuel at $10,50 per litre, which is way above set limits.

In a statement yesterday, Parliament said their investigations had shown that the particular transaction involved an unnamed MP who wanted to exchange expired fuel coupons.

“The fuel coupon exchange note in question involved a transaction between an individual Member of Parliament who was replacing expired coupons at Redan Pvt (Ltd) and not the institution of Parliament,” reads part of the statement.

“The only reason the exchange note reflects the name of the institution is primarily because the coupons are purchased by Parliament as an institution for all Members of Parliament and subsequently issued to individual members.

“The serial numbers of the coupons in Redan’s system thus reflect Parliament of Zimbabwe as the procuring entity and not the individual member. That notwithstanding, Parliament of Zimbabwe engaged Redan over the matter and was advised that the exchange note was generated and issued to the Member of Parliament for the sole reason of enabling him to collect the new coupons.

“The member in question was never charged for the transaction. In other words, the coupon exchange note is an internal Redan document whose esoteric figures are understood by Redan staff, but do not reflect the prevailing coupon prices and should thus not be used as a pricing reference point.”

Parliament said it was unfortunate that the MP in question decided to circulate the document on social media platforms without verifying with Redan or Parliament what the figures meant.