Senior Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba
Senior Reporter
Police have not taken lightly claims by Zimbabwe Revenue Authority Commissioner General Gershem Pasi that they are pocketing between US$3 million and US$7 million monthly from road blocks, describing him as “ignorant” and peddling falsehoods.Police chief spokesperson Senior Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba, said in a statement that Mr Pasi was attempting to cover up his “failures” by blaming the police for failing to perform his duties.
She said that the money collected from road blocks was well below the figures stated by Mr Pasi when he appeared before a parliamentary committee on Monday.
“The utterance is a big falsehood which is intended to whip public emotions against police in pursuance of an obvious agenda,” said Snr Asst Comm Charamba.
“Gershem Pasi is ignorant that the accounts are also tabled before Parliament and all the money collected by the police under the retention scheme is subject to external and internal audit by relevant authorities in Government just like anybody else.”
Snr Asst Comm Charamba queried Comm-Gen Pasi’s motive by singling out the police, yet several other Government departments were on the retention scheme. She said Mr Pasi was trying to cover up his failures by accusing the police of pocketing huge sums of money that should go to Treasury.
“Gersherm Pasi and his zimra are on the retention scheme and were on the forefront before the Zimbabwe Republic Police even started,” she said. “Gershem Pasi is given a task by Government which he is failing to perform, hence this blame to cushion his failure.”
Snr Asst Comm Charamba challenged Mr Pasi to use the same methods it used to collect money when it surpassed its set targets rather than to play the blame game.
“He (Mr Pasi) is on record of having exceeded collection targets well beyond those given to him by Government and why is he mourning now?”
“We advise Gershem Pasi to use the same methods he has been using to collect beyond the set targets.”
Snr Ast Charamba said police operations were being seriously affected by lack of fiscal support hence the need to retain spot fines for traffic offences.