HARARE - Top Zimbabwe Prison Service officials are allegedly hiring luxurious vehicles for private use while junior prison officers are forced to use their own vehicles to ferry inmates to court, it has been learnt.
The top officials who are stationed at the organisations headquarters in Harare have been, since April, hiring luxury vehicles from a local company (Impala car Hire) which charges a minimum of US$150 per day.
Sources at the ZPSs finance department say they have been paying these funds for more than six senior officers who have been using the hired vehicles since April.
The sources revealed that the development was arrived at by the management after the senior officers complained that their MAZDA Eagle vehicles were outdated and were no longer suitable for their status.
What is wrong with this is that these senior officials are not concerned with the welfare of the prisoners and junior officers. At the moment officers at Harare Remand are using their own resources to get to Harare hospital were there are five inmates who are receiving treatment. As a result of the serious shortage of transport to ferry them there they are being forced to work for between 12 to 18 hours
Further more all of them have fleets of vehicles which they have reserved and abuse the government facility of hiring expensive vehicles which they are using for personal benefits at a time inmates are defaulting courts, said the sources.
The sources further revealed that the top officials had refused to hire vehicles from the Central Mechanical Equipment Department which offers vehicles to government departments at a cheaper rate.
Post published in: News