Ministry gets TelOne telephone bills dated before it was established

THE Ministry of Regional Integration and International Co-operation said it was shocked recently when it received telephone bills from TelOne dated beyond the period it was established.

The Ministry was established in 2009 following the formation of the inclusive government and is headed by Minister Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga.

The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Mr Tadeous Chifamba said they have told TelOne to properly reconcile their bills.

He said when they received the bills, what was clear to them was that it reflected telephone usage which was not done by the Ministry.

Mr Chifamba was giving oral evidence before a Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and International Co-operation.

The committee chaired by Zaka East MP, Cde Samson Mukanduri (Zanu-PF), wanted to be appraised on the Ministry's first quarter budget performance

"We have asked them to reconcile their debt bill," said Mr Chifamba.

"They are giving us a bill that dates back even to the time when our Ministry was not yet formed."

Mr Chifamba said they did not even know some of the numbers the Ministry is said to have telephoned.

Several people have in the past complained about the billing system by service providers.

Some of the complaints have also been directed at Zesa Holdings and councils.

Zesa have admitted that its billing system needs improvement, adding that only installation of prepaid meters is the panacea to the billing challenge.

But consumers accuse the power utility of delaying the introduction of prepaid meters to rake in millions of dollars through estimated bills.

Turning to challenges at border posts, Mr Chifamba said his Ministry was working on a policy framework to reduce State actors at the ports of entry as part of efforts to decongest them.

Mr Chifamba said the presence of officials from several Government departments had not only contributed to congestion at borders but had created challenges with regard to reporting structure.

Some of the departments that are found at borders are the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority, Immigration, Zimbabwe Republic Police, Environmental Management Agency among others.

"At a border where you have the Zimra official as head of station, you also have EMA, the police for example to get instructions from Zimra where he has another boss a police office officer, it can be difficult, so we want to have a policy on that, we have to rationalise the people as well," said Mr Chifamba.

He said the situation is worsened when for example there is construction work going on, where there will be Ministry of Transport, Communication and Infrastructural Development for road maintenance work and Ministry of Agriculture officials to test food substance being imported.

Zengeza West MP, Mr Colleen Gwiyo (MDC-T) also asked why the Ministry had a Constituency Development item on the budget provision.

Mr Chifamba said although Ministries made financial provisions for their Ministers to carry out political activities in their Constituencies, there was no clear guidelines on how that should be handled.

"It is still a grey. It's a challenge and you have to manage it well," he said.

Mr Chifamba said they had sought guidance from Parliament but were told that MPs with no Ministries could benefit from money from Parliament while those Ministries should be assisted from those Government departments.

On the international front, Mr Chifamba said Japan will resume provision of developmental assistance that it had suspended.

"Japan had suspended developmental assistance it was focusing only on humanitarian assistance. So we are working on the programmes that could be funded," he said.