During the Africa Day holiday on the 25th of May 2017 one of the leading stories in the Zimbabwean press was the resignation of the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) commissioner-general, Gershem Pasi. According to The Black Village, Pasi cited broken down relations with his employer in his resignation letter.
Pasi was last year sent on forced leave to pave way on investigations on allegations of corruption and poor coporate governance unearthed by a forensic audit instituted by the Auditor-General’s office according to the Daily News Zimbabwe. The resignation of the commissioner-general currently on a forced leave, which other media houses prefer calling it a suspension, raises a lot of questions on whether it was a resignation or a dignified firing. Was it his decision to resign or it was a forced resignation.
It is important to understand the situation on which Pasi resigns. Pasi’s troubles started when it was allegedly discovered that one of his cars was fraudulently registered after he was involved in an accident in Harare according to the Standard. The commissioner-general resigns with 45 charges laid against him according to the Daily News with $20 million said to have been prejudiced between 2009 and last year. According to The Financial Gazette, the former Zimra boss resigned halfway through a disciplinary hearing on Monday. Zimra chairperson Willia Bonyongwe is said to have accepted the resignation.
According to an online publication Zim News, Zimra was the third most corrupt body in Zimbabwe. Zim Eye another online publication published a court case in which a Zimra official from Bulawayo allegedly bribed his bosses for a girlfriend to be employed.
A point to discuss here is the reason why the former boss resigned. Pasi says that he resigned because he had developed a bad relationship with his boss. Was the resignation something planned or it came in as what Pasi says?
The resignation comes as 45 charges are leveled against Pasi. It is possible that the former Zimra boss was trying to escape these charges by resigning. It did not take long for the Zimra board to accept Pasi’s resignation. This shows that the Zimra bosses had wanted Pasi to resign.
Was it a really a resignation that happened to the former Zimra boss or it was some dignified firing hidden in charges remains a question to be answered?
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