The Financial Gazette

. . . as GMB bosses use staff for private projects

Tinashe Madava, Staff Reporter

STATE-OWNED grain procurement agency, the Grain Marketing Board (GMB), has deployed its employees to work at private housing projects by its top managers, potentially prejudicing the cash-strapped parastatal currently on a compulsory retrenchment programme.
The Financial Gazette can report that the parastatal’s general manager, Albert Mandizha; deputy general manager (human resources), Sibongile Muchira-hondo and deputy general manager (operations), Lawrence Jasi, had their houses built using GMB staff.
Construction of Mandizha and Muchirahondo’s properties in Borrowdale and Bluffhill respectively has so far been completed, while that for Jasi in Norton is still under construction.
Sources within GMB said management had used staff from the technical pool for the personal housing projects. They allege that workers at the construction sites were paid allowances for the work at the same time that they were receiving salaries from the parastatal.
But GMB, through its corporate communications manager, Muriel Zemura, neither denied nor confirmed the deployment of GMB workers to build houses for the top managers, saying the three executives had “contracts whose contents are confidential” and could therefore not be disclosed to the media.
It was not clear if this meant the top managers had contracts that allowed them to use GMB staff for the development or construction of private properties.
Zemura said she had found no records to suggest payment of out-of-pocket allowances to staff at the parastatal for work done for the managers.
“After verifying with our records, we have established that it is not true that GMB staff were paid or are being paid out of pocket allowances for building private houses for Albert Mandizha, Sibongile Muchir-ahondo and Lawrence Jasi,” she said in response to questions sent to the parastatal.
Calls to Mandizha were not answered, while Jasi declined a request for a comment, referring questions to the public relation officer.
Muchirahondo was not reachable on her mobile number.
Zemura told The Financial Gazette: “I however, wish to highlight that the three top officials mentioned and three others are on five-year contracts whose contents are confidential between them and the employer.
Disclosing the conte-nts of these individual’s contracts to the Press would be unethical as this will be in bre-ach of the confidentiality clauses. It is our sincere hope that the Press will respect this.
“There are conditions to be met when members of staff have to use technical services, but this can only be done after appropriate authorisation is sought,”she added.
GMB has a technical department staffed with skilled people such as bricklayers, carpenters, electricians as well as mechanics.
While GMB has em-barked on a compulsory retrenchment exercise, critics allege that workers in the technical department have so far been spared.
The GMB, in October, said it had retrenched 749 workers and was seeking to trim its workforce by a further 2000.
Normally, building contractors charge 40 percent of the total value of a complete house. This means at current rates, the executives could have paid a minimum of US$40 000 each had they engaged the services of private contractors. On average, there were 10 workers at each housing site.
GMB is one of the 10 government companies earmarked for commercialisation and privatisation  aimed at restoring viability.
The parastatal has over the years battled to pay farmers on time for grain deliveries. As a result, many of the farmers are shunning the utility, scuttling efforts to rebuild and maintain the strategic grain reserves at a minimum of 500 000 tonnes.
Mandizha, a former assistant commissioner of police, took over from Samuel Muvuti who was the company’s acting chief executive from 2002 to 2007.
Muvuti was arrested on criminal charges for allegedly corruptly issuing GMB fuel to friends and relatives.
He was cleared of the charges of criminal abuse of duty after a fully contested trial.
Muvuti also faced charges of corruptly paying some of his private farm workers from GMB salary coffers.