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VP Mujuru

Victoria Falls Reporter
VICE-President Joice Mujuru has bemoaned corruption at the country’s ports of entry and reiterated the government’s commitment to improving surveillance and infrastructure to curb graft. In a speech read on her behalf by the Senior Minister of State, Ambassador Simon Khaya Moyo while officially opening the conference for clearing agents from Africa and the Middle East in Victoria Falls yesterday, VP Mujuru said customs clearing agents were key players in the economy as they played an intermediate role in the collection of revenue.
VP Mujuru said the country’s borders had been infiltrated by unscrupulous corrupt individuals that had compromised transparency and operations.

“As freight forwarders you have a critical role of facilitating trade through movement of cargo and customs clearing services across borders. This makes the customs clearing agents key players in the economy as it is the agents who play an intermediary role in the collection of revenue.

“The clearing agents process all commercial customs and documentation and are expected to exercise this function with due diligence and high integrity,” she said.
VP Mujuru blasted some unscrupulous tendencies whereby some agents encourage their clients to corruptly avoid paying duty and levies thereby prejudicing the fiscus of valuable revenue and exerting a lot of pressure on the national budget.

“Issues concerning the operations of seaports and logistics of border crossing need to be attended to with a view of addressing bottlenecks in the supply chain. In the same vein, some of our border posts now need structural redesigning so that traffic flows are better streamlined and do not become bottlenecks of urgent and dangerous cargo.

“We have witnessed that the customs clearing field has been invaded by some unscrupulous individuals that have heavily compromised the integrity of the industry and I call upon all players to exercise a high degree of professionalism and integrity for the benefit of your governments and the publics that you serve,” she said.

The Vice-President said the conference could not have come at a better time if taken in the context of the economic blueprint – the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (Zim-Asset).

She said the government was through Zim-Asset looking into critical infrastructure issues such as the urgent revamping of the national railway system which is central to trade.
Speaking at the same occasion, Transport and Infrastructure Development Minister, Dr Obert Mpofu, buttressed the need to deal with inefficiency at the border posts.

“We need to deal with all forms of inefficiency at border posts as delays also increase costs. The Ministry will establish a Border Ports Authority responsible for administering and regulating all border posts in line with requirements of transport international protocols and Zim-Asset,” he said.

Dr Mpofu said the aim of the new body was to eradicate challenges currently experienced by traders. The conference ends on Saturday and is expected to discuss trade challenges faced by agents at ports of entry.