Zimbabwe: Corruption Rocks Auction Floors

Source from:  The Herald 07/20/2016

Corruption has hit tobacco auction floors as buyers are taking advantage of desperate farmers by buying their crop for a song only to resell it at favourable prices, while leaf checkers are demanding money to peg bales at favourable prices.

A survey conducted by The Herald showed that class B buyers who were banned from auction floors, in a bid to arrest corruption, have resurfaced as holders of class A buyers' licences.

According to the TIMB marketing rules, an A class buyer means, a buyer who buys on auction floors during the selling season a minimum quantity of tobacco as is determined by the board, and does not re-sell on auction floors during that selling season more than five percent of the tobacco he/she has bought.

A class B buyer means any other buyer who buys and re-sells tobacco on the auction floors for speculative purposes after re-handling, and does not re-sell in excess of the mass purchased.

Some of the buyers who registered as class A buyers are buying tobacco from farmers at the auction floors and reselling the it to other buyers at higher prices, while some leaf checkers are demanding money from farmers in order for them to peg their tobacco at higher prices.

Marondera farmer Mr Darlington Matsika said, he sold his tobacco last week and was surprised to find tobacco bales with his grower's number reappearing last Friday at the floors.

"I delivered 118 bales at Premier Tobacco Auction Floors on Monday and the first batch was bought on Wednesday, the second batch was bought on Thursday and the third batch on Friday.

"I was surprised to see those bales at the auction floor today (Friday) being bought at $4,60 per kilogramme, while they were bought from me at $1,30 per kg," he said.

Mr Matsika said he identified his bales with his grower's number that was on the hessian sacks.

"I first identified the crop, then I had to recheck, and they were really my bales. I then checked the grower's number, which I had written on the hessian sacks, but the bales were being sold with a different grower's number which belonged to Kudzai Rimayi," he said.

A Guruve farmer, Mr Tichaona Munyatwa, was on Friday approached by leaf manager Besel Tambura and two unidentified men, who had no identification cards at Tobacco Sales Floor who demanded money for the bales to be sold at higher prices. Enditem