By Nick Mangwana
"We are not going to hesitate to put some
parastatals under the hammer. We should be able to say, you are not performing
so please get out. We must be harsh enough to say this because tiri kunyarana.”
This statement was said by the Minister of Finance and Economic Development Cde
Patrick Chinamasa quite recently. "Putting
under the hammer" was widely interpreted as meaning that the government
was going to privatise some of its parastatals that are underperforming.
There
has been calls from certain quarters that companies like the GMB, National
Railways of Zimbabwe, Air Zimbabwe and ZUPCO and a few others are a drain on
the fiscus so should be privatised. Over
the years the government has been giving subsidies to these State Enterprises.
But where because of budgetary constraints the government has been unable to do
that the enterprises ended up huffing and puffing as most of these are
currently doing. So some people have felt that there is a need for government same
and place them into private hands.
Accusations of cases of corporate rot in parastatals
is no longer headline grabbing. There are cases of abuse of both financial and
physical assets of these companies which are owned by the tax payer. Because
profit is has never been the major driver one can find that most parastatals in
Zimbabwe pay much more than private firms. But these highly paid executives
don't seem to have the creativity that is normally called for in the private sector
and are inefficiently run. So because when privatisation is done properly it
tends to bring micro-economic efficiencies.
But in this clamour for more privatisation one
should never forget that most of these firms
Over the years as much as 25% of the national
budget deficit was going towards subsidising our loss making parastatals
because they themselves cannot sustain profits. Companies like Zimbabwe Power
Company have dominance on the market but that has not allowed them to make profits
and if the power cuts and load shedding that is going on is anything to go by
then it also very clear that they are probably
is not the most productive asset of the economy.
The ZISCO/Zimsteel saga is over documented that
there is no need to dwell on it. The issues of the challenges faced by parastatals
is not a new thing. There have been quite a few Commissions of enquiries over
the years in these assets to see how they can be turned around. The deficits
and inefficiencies have continued unabated. And surely the reader is challenged
to name a parastatal that has not suffered from the so called "soft budget
constraint". The State has been called upon over and over again to bail
them out. Parliament is getting experience in debt assumption debates as the
government reaches out to stop some its enterprises going under. So the
proponents of privatisation would identify with Minister Chinamasa's call. They
argue that privatisation itself raises money in selling off these assets. There
is also the point that all the borrowing that was being done to keep the
enterprises afloat will be lowered.
Resources that were being used in the
sector will allocated elsewhere. Thus those who are
finding resonance with the
minster's warning or is it a threat see macro-economic stability being set in
motion and the people's suffering being reduced. They point to examples like
the partial privatisation of Kenya Airways where the government owns only
29.8%, KLM 26.7% and the rest in very private hands on the stock exchange. They
point how it is an airline that is incomparable to our own Air Zimbabwe.
Some of those opposed to the idea point at the
popularity of the re-nationalisation agenda in Britain, especially when it
comes to the railway transport industry. This was a sector was initially set up
with the commuter in mind and not profit. But since its privatisation and
introduction of competition, there has been an escalation of fares and the
efficiencies have only been witnessed in the number of profits that being made.
So sometimes the introduction of competition does not automatically bring in
efficiencies. Another case in point closer to home is the opening up of the
urban commuter industry in Zimbabwe and the havoc that followed with the Kombis
crowding out ZUPCO and yet the road safety and anarchy became a nightmare. But those who defend this
would point to the lack of regulation rather than the principle of reform
itself.
The political establishment seems to have
confronted the inevitability of the fact that the public purse is not deep
enough to continue to run some of these enterprises the same way. There are of
course those highly sensitive and strategic that a small country like ours
cannot privatise without compromising national security, those should not be
privatised. However the much vaunted "Corporate Governance Reform"
should not be just a phrase in season. It should be real. It is about 2 years
since the first publication of the ridiculous public sector executive
remuneration packages in some of these companies. It is disheartening that
there are reports that it has carried on unremittingly.
There are cases where there has been a general
consensus over reform or privatisation and in some cases private public
partnerships(PPP) but the management of the process itself has been fraught
with inefficiencies, ineptitude and downright incompetence which is highly
masked in fogginess. The ZimSteel/ Essar Deal comes to mind. This of course was
something that seized the GNU and the current government and simply now ended up
with the deal itself seizing up with no alternative on the horizon.
So it appears the journey is much longer than
it ever needs to be. Firstly the making of the decision to privatise itself is
very protracted and a fingernail pulling processes. When that decision is made
the implementing (if it happens) is another challenge. The public confidence is
dented and acclamation is now replaced with derision when deals are announced.
It shouldn't be kind that, and it doesn't need to be like that.
There is no question that the utility industry
in Zimbabwe needs reform. However privatisation is another question altogether.
There has been a lot of talk and blaster about bringing in good corporate
governance. It's just a sound bite at the moment as after a bit of time
everyone is always surprised that those parastatals executive are still earning
those ridiculous remunerations.
One thing that can never be ignored is that
there are always political ramifications to any privatisation.
People have always argued that there is a lot
of money either to be made or saved by privatisation but it's not as straight
forward as people would like everyone to believe.
Government divesture in some of the companies
in Zimbabwe at the moment may not yield value for money as they are currently
undervalued because of the way they are run. The companies seem primed to only
benefit the executives and in some cases board members. That has haemorrhaged their
worthy. So if a decision to sell off is made, it should be borne in mind that
there is a price to pay.
The UK experienced this by selling its utility
companies below fair market value but now there is an agitation by the new
leader of the opposition to go back to State control because of too much profiteering
by these private utility companies. These companies have now made a lot of
profits which the public has found too high to accept.
There is no country under the son that will not
consider political objectives in the sales or reform of their public sector industry.
Most public enterprises are set up for a
mission. That mission is normally to fulfil a certain socio-economic agenda,
there has to be a balance in opening up the market, bringing in competition and
loosening the degree of control that allows for the meeting of the objectives
for which the enterprise was set up for in the first place. That may mean
bringing in an independent regulator. What is clear is that the current
scenario is unsustainable. The nation cannot afford to have a National Railway
that is struggling to stay afloat. A national airline that is now not seen in
most G7 cities and a power company whose name is now used by children to curse
each other in the play ground.
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