No need to panic, Govt assures civil servants
NETONE chief executive officer, Mr Reward Kangai, has been dismissed from duty and could be arrested for allegedly looting US$11 million from the mobile phone service provider through FirstTel Cellular, a company that he owns together with other NetOne executives.
The parastatal’s board resolved to fire Mr Kangai after a forensic audit linked him to several underhand performances, including flagrant disregard for procedural airtime distribution and salary payment. Although NetOne board chair Mr Alex Marufu and spokesperson Mr John Nyashanu could not be reached for comment, impeccable sources told our Harare Bureau that Mr Kangai received marching orders last Friday.
The sources said the audit report, which contains numerous other charges, has already been submitted to ICT, Postal and Courier Services Minister Supa Mandiwanzira. Minister Mandiwanzira was unreachable yesterday.
A source told our Harare Bureau, “The board met on Friday and resolved that Kangai should be dismissed given the amount of corporate malfeasance that was unearthed by the forensic audit. The meeting took place after the team of auditors that conducted the exercise under the auspices of the Comptroller and Auditor General’s Office had presented its findings.
“And the draft audit report provides answers to the crucial question of why the mobile network operator has been a perennial loss-maker in a country where other telecommunicat i ons firms have been enjoying massive profits.” The auditors were mandated to look into a number of key issues, among them the integrity of NetOne’s payment system, the airtime distribution system, debt collection, salary and allowance payments, acquisition and management of base station sites and suppliers of interest. It was then discovered that several multi-million-dollar contracts had been signed outside tender procedures and with little viability assessment. The team established that Mr Kangai was using FirstTel Cellular to market the parastatal’s products. FirstTel’s co-owners include NetOne executives Mr Lyndon Nkomo, Ms Memory Moyo, Mr Matavire (now late) and Mr Godfrey Tarupuhwa (former finance director). It is believed that FirstTel received US$11 million but did not provide the stated services, and Mr Kangai later tried to convince the NetOne board not to pursue the matter. Further, Mr Kangai and his management team ploughed millions into OneWallet, NetOne’s mobile money platform, although evidence showed this was unprofitable. To Page 2 THE Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare, Prisca Mupfumira says there is no need for civil servants to panic and demand official communication as there are no changes to the Government’s communication regarding their salaries, salary dates and bonuses.
She reassured the public service workers that the Government was working on improving their conditions of service but appealed to pensioners to be patient as the Government was putting in place mechanisms to ensure they were also paid on time.
In an interview on Friday, Minister Mupfumira said the Government was not going to communicate in any other formal way other than the way it was engaging civil servants. Her comments come in the wake of demands by civil servants representatives for the Government to communicate its pledge not to cut their salaries as well as its commitment to pay their bonuses.
“We have always been communicating with the representatives of the civil servants in almost everything we do. They know our position very well and we have been engaging them. We do not want them to lag behind in information concerning them. For now the position announced by the Minister of Information, Media and Broadcasting Services, Dr Christopher Mushohwe is still unchanged.
“We are even working as Government to ensure their conditions of service are improved. They know everything, there is nothing really new to communicate to them either formally or informally as there is no change to the position recently announced,” she said.
Minister Mupfumira said she spoke to the civil servants prior to Finance Minister Cde Patrick Chinamasa’s announcements in his Mid–Term Fiscal Policy Review statement that civil servants’ bonuses would be suspended for two years while their salaries and allowances would be reduced as part of a raft of measures to get back the national economy on track.
Minister Mupfumira said civil servants were aware of the Government’s position with regards to their welfare and salaries and there was no need to panic. As for the pensioners, she said Government was behind in paying them but said there was no deliberate policy to do so.
This was in response to concerns raised by some pensioners who told Sunday News that they have been asked to re-register for their pension benefits especially those who are getting pension benefits for their deceased spouses.
“I may not be aware of the nitty-gritties of what is going on with pensioners. I will need time to find out on that. What I can tell you confidently is that we are behind in terms of payments. You may be aware that there has not been any pension contribution since the introduction of dollarisation. We only started it in October last year. This means that the pensioners were being paid from the wage bill thereby constraining it.
“We have no money but we are beginning to boost the pension fund through pension contributions so that pensioners are removed from the civil service wage bill and get their money from the pension fund. We cannot, however, pay the traditional lump sum as there is currently no money for that. We urge the pensioners to be patient,” said Minister Mupfumira.