AFTER stopping all advance payments to its contractors last year in order to stabilise prices of goods under the value for money exercise, minister of Finance Mthuli Ncube says the government has saved almost $500 billion.
The exercise was meant to deal with contractors who were inflating the prices of goods and services they rendered to the government.
In a statement yesterday, Ncube said the Treasury had also put in place a framework dealing with defaulting contractors who fail to deliver after receiving payment.
“Observations from the reviews conducted by the Treasury revealed that overpricing and forward pricing has been a rampant practice across public sector contractors. In this regard, under the VFM exercise ministries, departments, and agencies have been tasked to mainstream due diligence processes aimed at plugging loopholes in the existing procurement systems.
“To this effect, the government has registered significant savings in expenditures amounting to close to half-a-trillion Zimbabwean dollars, thus providing the leverage to channel more resources towards capital expenditure,” Ncube said.
He further indicated that they had also put in place price caps on three categories that include hotels and conference facilities.
“Treasury and Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (Praz) have developed a national price index to guide all public sector institutions on the price ceilings in the various procurement categories. To date, three categories have been issued groceries and office provisions and stationery products, and paper raw materials.
“Public officials are also reminded to exercise due care in undertaking processes and effecting payments for goods and services by following the statutory provisions so as not to prejudice the government of the much-needed resources for public service delivery.
“Officials found to be complicit will be charged with financial misconduct and will have to restitute government where losses are incurred,” Ncube said further.
In an effort to stabilise the local currency and contain inflation in the country, the Ministry of Finance in April blacklisted 13 more companies for allegedly channelling funds to the parallel market with consumers and businesses saying authorities need to act urgently as this, along with incessant power cuts, have contributed to a new wave of price increases of basic goods.
This comes after the government last year in November blacklisted 19 other companies for allegedly being involved in the aforementioned activities.
Dailynews: