RBZ overstates amounts owed to creditors

Parliament yesterday breathed fire over what it called "glaring errors" and overstatement of amounts owed to creditors by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) by margins of 20% to a whopping 2 500% as stated in the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Debt Assumption Bill currently before the National Assembly.

Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa and RBZ governor John Mangudya were told by members of the Budget, Finance and Economic Development Portfolio Committee that the Bill would not pass through Parliament unless an urgent audit of the inflated figures leading to the $1,7 billion RBZ debt was done.

Chairman of the committee David Chapfika (Mutoko South MP Zanu-PF) said there was need for verification of the quantum of the debt, review of the exorbitant interest rates charged, and he asked Chinamasa and Mangudya to explain the legality of issuing Treasury Bills of $50 million to Meikles before the Bill was passed and figures verified by Parliament.

Bikita West MP Munyaradzi Kereke (Zanu-PF) pointed out the glaring errors in the Bill, some of them that included a $1,7 million loan owed to FBC and Afre Zimbank in December 2008, but which debt had since grown to $43 million.