Of clean hands and the Pis-Mas farce

The farcical drama at PSMAS (pronounced Pis-Mas) continues (unabated, to employ terminology made popular during our "struggle" days at university - "The struggle continues unabated!" we used to chant with youthful exuberance).

Readers will recall the criticism we expressed against the PSMAS Board when they announced that they were elevating one of their own, Mr Luxon Zembe to become the organisation's Chairman (see "Of Hyenas and Corporate Governance").

They said in electing him unanimously that they wanted "to bring in a fresh perspective at PSMAS". On our part, we were rather sceptical; doubting whether one who had been part of the leathargic Board that literally slept on the wheel of the Gravy Train, could really be expected to "bring a fresh perspective" to the organisation.

We thought his elevation was absurd and that they were literally taking the p*ss at Pis-mas. Well, now Mr Zembe has come out in defence of his elevation and folks, it doesn't get more ridiculous than this. We learn from a report in The Herald newspaper today that Mr Zembe was not just a board member of PSMAS but also at 7 of its subsidiaries (do they pay directors' fees in respect of each company?).

A slight detour: I bet if someone does research on multiple directorships in Zimbabwe's corporate organisations, one is likely to find a motley crew of not more than 100 overall (of which 99% are portly men), occupying all seats in boardrooms across the country. There is a corporate mafia out there, just as bad if not worse than the political mafia.

And if corporate incest was a crime, many would be exchanging notes with the disgraced pastor at Chikurubi right now. Anyway, back to Pis-mas. According to The Herald report, Mr Zembe protests that "his hands were clean". He is quoted as having said, "I was not chairman of these committees, but just a member.

There is a big difference between being a member and being chairman of the committee. Now I am in a position of authority to chair the board. If you are a member, you just make your contributions and the leaders decide either to listen to you or not take that advice.

Right now I have full authority to direct things and in the past I was not able to control things by virtue of being (an ordinary) member. I now have a position to do right things and bring all my experience" Seriously?

Yes, this is coming from a gentleman who is the Chairman of the National Corporate Governance Code Committee and was involved in crafting the Code of Corporate Governance for Parastatals and State Enterprises.

We do wonder if the Code includes the principle of collective responsibility. Apparently, according to Mr Zembe, ordinary board members cannot be blamed for failures of the Board - only the Chairman should take the heat because as he puts it, he has "full authority".

He is clean because he was "just a member", so he says. How exactly is decision-making done at PSMAS? Is it a dictatorship where only the Chairman's word is law or do they not, as is best practice, vote on issues? The cop-out by so-called ordinary members is cheap but what can one expect in a country where taking responsibility is alien to leadership.

There is always someone to blame, in this case according to Mr Zembe, it's the Chairman! When it was put to him that he was aware of the huge wages being aid to the senior executives, he also had a response, "That information was not being declared … It was concealed and the leaders made sure what they wanted was discussed in meetings. We were all taken by surprise. That is why we removed the board chairperson."

So are we to believe that the profligacy at Pis-mas could have continued (unabated) if the media had not made the revelations? And why now - in 2014, when in fact this story was broken by the private media way back in December last year? They ignored it then, these directors, and have rather miraculously only woken up to take action after The Herald has published it.

These guys are not being kind to honesty. Are the seriously telling us that they did not read the papers that we all read last year, revealing these astounding wages? They ignored them then only to take action just because The Herald and therefore the State has published them. Why? They thought they could get away with it; that the matter would e swept under the proverbial carpet?

In any event, a Board member who is "surprised" by events happening at his or her company was clearly not doing their job. A self-respecting board member would be embarrassed to publicly admit ignorance of such basic matters as Executive wages. Why did they not demand this vital information?

Are Executive wages not declared annually in the company's records? If they were not being declared, is Mr Zembe not suggesting that there was fraud against the company? Clearly, non-disclosure and concealment when the rules of the organisation and the law require disclosure of this information says some people were committing fraud here.

He is saying some people in the organisation, including the Board Chairperson deliberately concealed information from the Board. So will the new Board now take appropriate action against the alleged fraudsters? But will they do that?

 Much depends on whether they themselves are clean enough. We will keep watching (and scrutinising) as the drama unfolds. Meanwhile, we wish Mr Zembe well in his new role and hope that his "clean" hands will forever remain clean ...

waMagaisa@yahoo.co.uk