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Herald Reporter
INFORMATION, Media and Broadcasting Services Minister Professor Jonathan Moyo has commended the mainstream media for exposing abuse of public funds and assets by some boards and management elements in public enterprises.
The media – both public and private – have in the past few weeks been covering extensively the abuse of public funds at Premier Service Medical Aid Society, Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation, Air Zimbabwe and Harare City Council among others.
“So far, the media has done justice to its expected national role as the public’s eye,” said Prof Moyo.
“It is indeed refreshing that the media is speaking with one voice in both the public and national interest against the scourge of corruption highlighted by some obscenely corrupt salaries paid by some parastatals and local authorities.
“As the saga of corrupt salaries in public enterprises unfolds, it is important that the ensuing narrative does not become either a witch-hunt or a cover-up, as neither would be in the public or national interests.
“The national discourse on this issue that has become too public to be ignored should be based on and driven by facts which should be allowed to speak for themselves.
“Any witch-hunt, and any cover-up, will itself be corrupt and therefore not different from the bane of the crude salaries in question.”
He said it was in the public interest that the corrupt practices be exposed under the dictates of the law and principles of good governance.
“In the interest of good corporate and national governance, and indeed in the interest of rooting out the cancer of corruption from our country’s political economy, the only way of avoiding witch- hunts and cover-ups is by ensuring that both media coverage of — and the policy response to — what some are now calling “salarygate” are driven by due process of the law and principles of good governance without being contaminated by the whims and caprices of vested interests which may themselves be corrupt or at risk of being seen as such,” Prof Moyo said.
He said that parastatals and local authorities under the spotlight were not only afflicted with the scourge of corrupt salaries and allowances but also corrupt procurement and pricing procedures.
“In other words, we have obscene salaries, crooked allowances, fraudulent procurement procedures and distorted prices. This syndrome of quadruple corruption, which has become the ugly face of dollarisation, must be dealt with in a comprehensive manner in accordance with the due process of the law.
“It cannot be swept under the carpet without systematic resolution because it has very dire consequences on the national economy, particularly on the welfare and well-being of ordinary people whose livelihoods are facing grave risks because parastatals and local authorities are required in terms of the law to provide front line goods and services to the ordinary people.
“As Zimbabweans, we have a duty to resist the quadruple corruption of obscene salaries, crooked allowances, fraudulent procurement procedures and distorted prices not only because we owe it to ourselves but also others, especially our continental brothers and sisters as well as others in the progressive world who have been inspired by President Mugabe’s iconic leadership on matters of principles expect us to lead by example,” said Prof Moyo.
He said it was important for Government to exercise zero tolerance to corruption in parastatals, local authorities and civil service.
“In fact, the outside world should be forgiven for thinking that our parastatals and local authorities and the civil service are run by “little Mugabes”.
“This because of President Mugabe’s widely respected ideological stance that our sovereignty over the commercial exploitation of our God-given resources to benefit our own people means that we must have zero tolerance to corruption. While many in the leadership of the civil service, parastatals and local authorities are wont to be the first to mimic President Mugabe’s stance at the level of slogans, they are in fact the last to practise those slogans in their specific responsibilities at their workplaces.
“The time has come to judge the leadership in Government, the civil service, parastatals and local authorities not on the basis of what it says but on the basis of what it does. In other words, the time has come for the leadership in these sectors to be ‘little Mugabes’ in both word and deed,” Prof Moyo said.
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