Zim must pay IMF, WB

Recently, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development said it needed time to settle the debts and fulfil other promises it made to cut down on public expenditure and make disclosures regarding revenue flows and management. It has always said this.

So much time has elapsed with the government making the same excuse over and over. It has had so many chances to meet its side of the bargain so that we may once again start enjoying our financial rights as an approved member of these two important global institutions.

It does not wash for the government to say it has no money to settle its debts. Hundreds of millions of dollars that could have been used to pay those debts have been squandered on useless trips by President Mugabe and other officials – who tend to invite whole villages to accompany them whenever they go out of the country.

International travel should have been limited to a few essential trips. But we know that our civil bureaucracy uses those journeys as money-spinning tools through inflated travel and subsistence allowances.

Similarly, the government has been spending a whole fortune on oiling the military and other state security departments, when the nation is not at war with any country and does not need a bloated securocracy. Worse even than that, most of the unaccounted-for money has been used to ensure that Zanu (PF) remains in power – with Mugabe’s faithful hangers-on firmly ensconced in their seats on the money-making gravy-train.

In essence, there is hardly anything national in the operations of the security sector. It doesn’t make sense to keep recruiting soldiers who spend most of their time idling at the barracks or running personal errands on behalf of the generals.

Also, it is now widely admitted even among top government officials that money from diamonds has not been going where it belonged—into government coffers – thanks to corrupt ministers and other government officials. This must be stopped, so that we receive the proper revenue from these gems, part of which would be used to service our international debts.