Govt blacklists 13 contractors for channelling funds into black market

Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube on Monday announced that the government has blacklisted 13 contractors for channelling funds to the illegal foreign exchange market as it steps up efforts to stabilise the local currency and contain inflation.

The blacklisting of the 13 companies, which is the second in 5 months, comes after the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) exposed the entities for unlawful conduct.

The blacklisted companies include Casha Designs (Pvt) Ltd, Re-net Technologies (Pvt) Ltd, Malfran Investments (Pvt) Ltd, Difflock Construction (Pvt) Ltd, Staman Investments (Pvt) Ltd, Guide Marketing (Pvt) Ltd, Nodship Investments Pvt Ltd and Infinity Hire Pvt Ltd.

Others include Nomalanga Marketing Pvt Ltd, Gift Mwayers t/a Mwayera Transport Pvt Ltd, Mukota Haulage and Buses, Ofixmore Marketing Pvt Ltd and Blecia Investments.

“Having monitored various financial transactions with a view to plug parallel market dealings, the FIU has observed that these companies are siphoning their proceeds to the parallel market, thus triggering domestic inflationary pressures.

“Resultantly, Government has blacklisted the aforementioned companies so as to maintain stability in the foreign currency market and to curb inflation.

“In the same vein, the Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe will be advised to permanently remove the entities from the list of potential service providers to government,” said Ncube in a statement.

Last year, the FIU blacklisted 19 companies for fuelling parallel market activities.

There have been concerns that government suppliers were fuelling inflation as they bought the green back on parallel market after being paid. New Ziana