Parliamentary Budget and Finance Committee chairperson Dr Energy Mutodi has issued damning allegations that Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, George Guvamatanga has been collecting kickbacks on payments authorised by Treasury.
Posting on X (formerly Twitter), Mutodi said Guvamatanga was demanding between 5% and 10% of every payment processed by Treasury.
According to Mutodi, contractors, ministries and departments that refused to comply were being denied funds even when their allocations had already been approved in the national budget.
He said Parliament itself had struggled to operate in recent months after its own allocations were withheld.
“A civil servant earning less than $1,000, Mr Guvamatanga is said to have accumulated more than $1 billion, with assets including over 5,000 dairy cattle, state-of-the-art equipment and multiple luxury mansions. These revelations have prompted calls for a lifestyle audit,” Mutodi posted
One road construction company is said to have complained to the committee that Guvamatanga demanded US$200,000 for every US$2 million he authorised in weekly payments.
Mutodi further alleged that Guvamatanga had made threats against him personally after learning the committee was considering recommending both a lifestyle audit and a probe by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC).
The Budget and Finance Committee is now formally seized with the report which could trigger a broader parliamentary inquiry.
Former opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) deputy spokesperson Gift Ostallos Siziba said the allegations were an indictment of the Ministry and Central Bank.
“These grave allegations by Parliament are not just about one man’s greed. They are a damning indictment of the Ministry of Finance, the Reserve Bank, and the entire regime that facilitates corruption on such a grotesque scale.
“We have consistently raised the issue of grand-scale looting that continues to bleed our already broken economy while millions languish in poverty. Zimbabwe cannot afford another day under these parasitic and greedy elites,” he said
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