Business Reporter
The Mutapa Investment Fund (MIF) CEO Doctor John Mangudya says the move to exempt the entities under the Mutapa Investment Fund (MIF) from the cocktail of procurement regulations is not an avenue to milk the entities but a pure business decision aimed at improving efficiencies.
Through various pieces of legislation, starting with the Presidential Powers Act, the Sovereign Wealth Fund of Zimbabwe was renamed to Mutapa Investment Fund (MIF), paving the way for repositioning the sovereign wealth fund.
Statutory Instrument (SI) 156 of 2023 brought about 2 state-owned enterprises (SOEs) under the huge umbrella of the MIF. Subsequently, SI 51 of 2024 brought in another seven, to make the MIF one of the largest ever corporate bodies in the history of Zimbabwe.
Almost 29 entities under the MIF are exempted from following the strict procurement regulations in a development which has so far ignited fears that such attributes may expose the Fund to looting through manipulation of such voids.
But speaking recently, the MIF CEO, Dr Mangudya dismissed such speculation, instead urging key stakeholders and citizens to embrace the purely business initiative.
“Take for instance an enterprise like NetOne, it is competing with Econet. But, NetOne, like other entities, are in a competitive environment. If you give them some bottlenecks like let’s if they want to procure a base station, Econet will go buy one tomorrow while NetOne is still waiting,” he said.
He therefore argued that exempting NetOne from the procurement law is not corrupt at all but just a strategy to rid the State Enterprises from unnecessary bottlenecks.
“It is being done in good faith. Don’t tell me corruption is blocked by remaining on the Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe. I am not sure if people know what they are talking about,” he added
