Assets declarations by bigwigs would curb corruption

The move by government to come up with the National Code of Conduct, which requires that all top executives in public offices and parastatals should declare their assets and outline how they got them, is a welcome development that would bring normalcy and good corporate governance as well as transparency and accountability in the country. Such a move would be good for the country as bigwigs have been failing to effectively run their offices as they concentrated more on squandering a lot of resources for their personal gains instead of making sure that such resources benefit the public.

The code, which would be launched by President Mugabe, soon requires that Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of public utilities and parastatals should not become chairpersons of boards of other companies. Once CEOs become chairpersons of companies, they abuse their positions and award themselves absurd sitting allowances and a host of perks for themselves, resulting in excessive milking of the host company`s resource with nothing left for it to operate effectively.

When this code of conduct is finally put in place, it would make sure that top executives are always performing duties which they have been employed to do. Their salaries would also be based on individual company`s performance and that should also be performance and incentive based. Such a move by the government to come up with this code of conduct would make it possible for companies to be run well and be able to generate profits for the government.

The remuneration committee that would be established, as another requirement by this upcoming code of conduct, would make it necessary to plug out loopholes that the CEOs have been manipulating when they awarded themselves unrealistically high salaries. So, the formation of this committee would be a welcome move as salaries of all the bigwigs would be monitored and kept at check every time and again.

In addition to the above, this code of conduct would make it necessary for top executives and public officers to regularly declare their assets as part of measures to strengthen good governance and openness in the daily running of public utilities and parastatals. Further more, the code calls for a law to regulate the conduct of top executives in both the public and private sectors. This would make them work tirelessly for the survival of their companies as they would be aware that failure to do appropriate work would make them lose their work and status in the public domain.

 For quite a long time now, Zimbabwe has been under siege from top executives running public offices, especially parastatals and local authorities, as they mercilessly awarded themselves unrealistically high salaries at the time when the bulk of workers were earning meager salaries not enough to make ends meet. Top executives have gone on the extent of fleecing parastatals leaving them with nothing to sustain their operations. This habit of awarding themselves exorbitant salaries and failing to live enough for the workers has brought suffering to the majority of the people in the country.

 Bigwigs have been abusing funds generated from public utilities and parastatals for their personal aggrandizement at the time when government was failing to pay adequate salaries to its workers. This abuse of resources by top executives at the time when the majority are suffering has created animosity between the haves and the have-nots. Surprisingly, top executives of some companies went on to award themselves exorbitant salaries yet the same public utilities and parastatals were failing to adequately give proper service to the public. For example the former CEO of the Premier Service Medical Aid Society (PSMAS) was getting above half a million dollars monthly when PSMAS was/is failing to pay service providers, resulting in the card holders of this medical aid society failing to be assisted in different health institutions across the country.

Zimbabweans have witnessed unbelievable salary gaps where Some CEOs were/are getting more than five hundred thousand dollars ($500 000,000) when an ordinary worker was/is taking home as little as one hundred and seventy five dollars ($175, 00). Such an unmoral salary gaps would be checked and corrected by the formation of the remuneration committee envisaged in the proposed code of conduct, thus putting to an end corrupt tendencies by top executives.

The government has realised that it has been losing out a lot of substantial amounts in paying out a lot of money in salaries to very few individuals yet the majority of people were suffering. This move by government of finding alternative moves to plug out corruption within public utilities and parastatals would bring more resources to the government coffers and the economy of the country would start moving again.

This is a welcome development which will bring sanity in all parastatals and all top executives would make sure that they will not abuse government resources for personal gains. If CEOs are prohibited from becoming chairpersons of some companies that would also be good for the public utilities because decisions on how one would get his salary would not be decided on the basis of the personal interests. This habit of having one CEO chairing various companies contributed more in the abuse of state and parastatals resources which the country witnessed recently.

So, once the code of conduct is launched and become operational, a lot of things would change for the better. Declarations of assets by top executives and making sure that they are open on the source of their wealth would be a starting point in a way to curb corruption in the country. Anyone who knows that he/she is always under monitoring and checks, will always try to live on the means on what he legal gets as remuneration and not what he illegally gets for survival.

This good document would also want political will and support from the politicians for it to be successful. It is proper and appreciable if the political leadership and bigwigs in the country talk with one voice and be united to make sure that this code of conduct does not become a useless thing, but should be made implemented and then becomes a success.

Mukachana Hanyani, a Harare-based political and social commentator who can be reached through mhanyani@yahoo.com