Harare East legislator and Citizens Coalition for Change senior member Tendai Biti asserts that US$3, 5 billion has been tapped from the public sector to cartels through the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) auction system.
The auction system was introduced in June 2020 in a bid to bring transparency and efficiency to the trading of foreign currency in the economy as the local currency was diminishing in value.
The Central Bank authorities argued that corporates and other businesses were fueling forex parallel market trading thereby worsening the situation.
Biti a former Minister of Finance during the 2009-2013 Government of National Unity said the Foreign exchange Auction system was a fraud that needed forensic audit to expose underhand dealings.
“From day one we argued that Foreign Exchange Auction system was a fraud facilitating transfer of wealth from public coffers to cartels US$ 3.5 b has been syphoned from public sector to cartels via the auction system from its inception. But economy has nothing to show for this
“The massive auction fraud funded by the public requires a forensic value-for-money audit. Who got what, for what purpose, was there delivery or performance? Such an audit will expose the extractive predatory status quo of the Central Bank and why it must be shut down,” said Biti
Meanwhile, the Zimbabwe dollar continued its downward spiral against the US dollar. According to the latest official foreign currency auction conducted by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) today, the weighted average rate has fallen to US$1: ZWL$621.5321
