Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA) Board Chairperson Willia Bonyongwe, in the tax collector’s 2018 First Quarter’s Perfomance Report revealed that revenues were going up due to the fight against corruption.
ZIMRA’s gross collection for the First Quarter of this year were 8.1% above the target of US$1,029 billion, with collection amounting to US$1,113 billion.
“Due to the fight against corruption, the revenues have been going up, and could double by year end,” Bonyongwe said. “It is my hope that this trend is not derailed because of avarice.”
ZIMRA officials have in the past been accused on being corrupt with the former commissioner leaving office amid corruption allegations.
The Revenue Authority chairperson says that one of the major weapons being used to fight corruption is the use of Hotlines, like Rwanda one of the least corrupt countries in Africa.
“Our independent hotline was a major source of information which fed into the investigations,” Bonyongwe says.
“We were all shocked by the level of accuracy of the information and are forever grateful to those who supplied and continue to supply information.”
“Initially, the fight against corruption was going on well, but currently it has turned rough, as those who are feeling the heat are fighting back so hard.” Bonyongwe goes.
The chairperson says investigations and audits at ZIMRA after a shke-up revealed issues which the board would not ordinarily have uncovered.
“Without, those audits and investigations, corruption could have long collapsed ZIMRA,” Bonyongwe says.
“You will recall when the Board was appointed ZIMRA was struggling to meet its revenue targets and at some point Government was failing to pay the salaries for civil servants.”
In 2016 over 200 ZIMRA officer were redeployed to other stations and life style audits to flush out corrupt staffers followed afterward.
The tax collector introduced an anti-corruption hotline on May 5 2016, which is managed by an independent service provider, for reporting corruption cases relating to the Authority according ZIMRA’s website.
Transparency International ranked Zimbabwe number 157 out of 180 countries on the 2017 Corruption Perception Index.
