A government department has blamed the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) for its failure to disburse $9 million meant for vulnerable groups.<\/p>\n
The money allocated to the Ministry of Social Services, according to Auditor General Mildred Chiri had to be returned despite the fact that most Zimbabweans are struggling to put one meal on the table.<\/p>\n
The department\u2019s social protection specialist Mildred Mapani said there were unable to handover cash to the vulnerable people in 23 districts as part of the Harmonised Cash Transfer (HCT) programme because they could not access cash from the RBZ.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are supposed to get this money in form of bond cash not transfer, but the RBZ could not avail enough cash for us to distribute to the beneficiaries.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd for this whole year we have only managed to get enough cash to distribute to two districts when we are supposed to get cash to distribute to 23 districts,\u201d said Mapani. \u201cAt the end of the year you haven\u2019t utilised the budget and it\u2019s beyond us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zimbabwe has been struggling with cash shortages that seen ordinary people sleeping in bank queues for years now.<\/p>\n
Mapani added that her department does not have resources to implement the cash transfer programmes effectively.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou are given money to distribute to beneficiaries, you don\u2019t have the means to do that, you don\u2019t have the vehicles.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey will tell you that this money cannot buy vehicles, how can I take the money to the person, am I supposed to use a bus to Uzumba Maramba Pfungwe (UMP) to distribute the money,\u201d the bureaucrat asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are two things, availing the money and transportation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chiri\u2019s 2018 report indicated that the failure to disburse the cash benefits had worsened the plight of vulnerable communities with children exposed to forced labour among other ills.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe $9 559 722 earmarked for the HSCT programme was recalled by the Treasury on December 31, 2018 after realising that no disbursements were made thus depriving the beneficiaries of a better standard of life,\u201d the report had said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A government department has blamed the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) for its failure to disburse $9 million meant for vulnerable groups. The money allocated to the Ministry of Social Services, according to Auditor General Mildred Chiri had to be returned despite the fact that most Zimbabweans are struggling to put one meal on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":12816,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,6],"tags":[83,240,653],"class_list":{"0":"post-12814","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-all-news","8":"category-economy","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-money","11":"tag-rbz"},"yoast_head":"\n