The proposed Debt Assumption Bill would be the last leg in the reforms by the ministry at the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) to enable the institution to concentrate on its core business.
The RBZ debt presently stands at over US$1,5 billion, accrued when government directed the bank to perform duties normally done by Treasury.
Finance minister Tendai Biti told delegates at a farewell function for departing RBZ deputy governors, Edward Mashiringwani and Nick Ncube, that his ministry was pursuing a raft of measures as part of its mandate.
“We are aiming to liberate the balance sheet of the bank of the debt so that they are free, there are no legacy issues,” Biti said on Thursday.
RBZ governor, Gideon Gono said the bill would be expedited “to make sure that hopefully in the shortest possible time it sees light at the end of the day”.
“We are very keen to make sure that bifurcation (splitting) of the RBZ balance sheet is concluded under separate management,” he said.
He said the move was not sinister and a witch-hunting exercise but a concept that has been done before notably at CBZ.
But a dossier alleged to have been written by Gono’s former advisor, Munyaradzi Kereke, lambasted the move saying it would spin the country into civil war.
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The letter alleges that bill propose to investigate all government’s transactions over the pre-GPA era of between 2004 and 2008 be investigated through an appointed court.
Such a move would also be expected to help improve private sector confidence in the country at a time when the central bank is incapacitated to function as a lender of last resort.
The central bank owes US$300 million in funds taken from foreign currency accounts and another US$200 million owed in quasi-fiscal activities carried out at the height of the country’s economic problems.
The introduction of the multi-currency regime in February 2009 rendered the central bank’s key role of regulating monetary policy void as the RBZ could not print foreign currency notes and was debt-ridden.
RBZ debt has in the news after some creditors obtained writs of execution to attach the central bank’s assets.
In 2010, government then moved swiftly to protect the assets by invoking the Presidential Powers (Temporary Measures) Act to protect the RBZ’s assets from being attached by various creditors as the bank was incapacitated to repay the outstanding amounts.
