HARARE Zimbabwes feared spy agency is on a spending binge, splashing more than US$8 million of taxpayers money on a fleet of new vehicles for its operatives who have been fingered in a string of unexplained abductions and torture of President Robert Mugabes political opponen
Impeccable Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) sources said the agency took delivery of at least 200 brand new South African-assembled Nissan double-cab vehicles in January.
Investigations by this newspaper showed that a Nissan Navara, which is the preferred model used by the spy agency and other government departments in Zimbabwe, costs around R305 100 (about US$40 000) each. SW Radio Africa reported that some of the vehicles are already on display at the CIO provincial offices in Bulawayo.
The spending spree by the CIO on the new vehicles came at a time the rest of Zimbabwes civil service was locked in bitter negotiations with their employer for an increase in salaries and allowances from the paltry US$160 they receive per month. The cash-strapped Harare authorities have struggled to meet wage demands of their disgruntled workers who went on strike two weeks ago after negotiations collapsed. The CIO budget falls under the Office of the President and Cabinet and is therefore not subject to scrutiny by the Treasury or
Parliament. The budget for the President’s Office is no longer being made public. The move to buy new cars for the CIO is seen as an attempt to placate junior operatives who are struggling like other civil servants. The CIO has in previous years benefited from the benevolence of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) which would regularly print money to
finance the country’s spy agency.
The RBZ was until the beginning of last year under instructions from the President’s Office to prioritise the CIO if money is needed for its many activities that include undermining the opposition or civic groups. The CIO is said to be in a financial crisis as a result of running too many special projects which need huge capital injections. The special projects include a large farm in each of the country’s provinces, as the CIO tries to help portray the land reform exercise as a success. But by the time the CIO took over those farms, equipment and
infrastructure had already been looted or vandalised and millions of dollars are needed to allow the farms to produce to capacity.
Another project requiring massive funding is that of Chinese equipment for jamming radio waves, which was installed in most provinces. Corruption is also said to contribute significantly to the unhealthy financial situation. According to sources, corruption is so rampant within the ranks of the organisation’s top brass that a sizeable fraction of the organisation’s budget goes towards financing personal projects of the top brass, who enjoy a lavish lifestyle, while most of those in the junior ranks can hardly make ends meet. Tenders for the supply of goods and services to the spy agency are given to companies secretly owned by senior CIO officers or those owned by their close relatives or friends, from who they later get a share of the profits.
Post published in: News