The Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) is probing Gloria
Magombo, the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Energy and Power
Development on allegations that she has been drawing a salary from the
Zimbabwe Regulatory Authority (ZERA) despite her permanent secretary
appointment.
Until her appointment in September last year,
Magombo was the CEO of ZERA. Information obtained by Business Times
showed that ZACC last week interviewed the acting Zera chief executive,
Eddington Mazambani, on why Magombo was withdrawing a salary from the
energy regulator.
Insiders say Magombo has been receiving salaries from both the government and ZERA since her appointment as permanent secretary.
Magombo took over from Partson Mbiriri following a reshuffle of permanent secretaries by President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Mazambani
confirmed ZACC's inquiry, though insisting that the continued payment
of a salary to the former CEO was above board as it had the blessing of
the government and the Public Services Commission (PSC).
"Last
week I met ZACC officials who were working on that matter and we gave
them all the paperwork which showed that the payment of a salary to the
former chief executive was above board," Mazambani said.
"They
also spoke to the PSC chairperson who also told them that the salary
payment was above board. The payment of a permanent secretary salary
from the government is reversed every month, so she doesn't pick that
one up, but the arrangement ended in September and now she is going to
get her salary from the government."
He said ZERA would continue
to contribute to a fund which was established by the government to pay
salaries for permanent secretaries. There is a plan by the government,
as spelt out in the 2019 mid-term fiscal policy review on skills
retention, that aims to ensure better packages for permanent
secretaries.
According to Mazambani, "the ZERA accountant is the
one who was dealing with Magombo's matter and he has all the paperwork
regarding the request by the government through the PSC and our parent
Ministry to come up with that arrangement. There was also a
correspondence from the Office of the President and Cabinet which
questioned the arrangement initially and was told why it was being done.
Explaining
the rationale behind the arrangement, Mazambi said "when Magombo was
still chief executive here, she had a contract that was lapsing in 2022,
so she had taken some loans among other obligations based on the ZERA
salary which was going to end in 2022. She then bargained with the
government that though she wanted to serve as a permanent secretary, she
had made some commitments based on the ZERA salary. She and the
government then came to an understanding that ZERA would continue to
support the salary of Permanent Secretary Magombo."
When
contacted, Magombo said contract details with her employer were
confidential and referred all questions to the PSC chairman, Vincent
Hungwe who confirmed that Magombo was drawing a salary from ZERA and
that he was not aware whether Magombo was getting a salary from the
government.
"The expectation was that ZERA would support the
government by way of meeting her salary for a year, by which time the
government would have put arrangements in place that would improve the
condition of service for critical staff," Hungwe said. ZACC has also
been investigating ZERA's award of a tender for the construction of its
head office by a Chinese firm.
- businesstimes
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