Prisca Tshuma, Staff Writer 
ZIMBABWE’S Finance ministry has strongly warned creditors and suppliers from hiring third parties and consultants to pursue their debts, as authorities move to stave off undue pressure and possible extortion.
This comes as Treasury has adopted quite a number of debt management strategies, including the use of a national standard pricing list, insistence on e-government procurement, restricting unauthorised expenditure or over-contracting to US$2 million, hammered out several donor-driven arrears clearance programmes and pared down its domestic obligations by US$600 million as at December 2025.
“Government will not entertain claims or obligations arising from arrangements entered between creditors and consulting firms or other third parties for the recovery or facilitation of payment or… arrears,” Finance minister Mthuli Ncube said, adding “ministries, departments and agencies had been instructed not to engage outsiders, as Harare would not recognise or settle fees, commissions or other costs arising from such arrangements between creditors and intermediaries”.
“Creditors who choose to engage such entities do so at their own risk (and we) would like to unconditionally advise that officials will not entertain or engage any such suppliers or contractors who visit or call on them,” he said stressing that the ministry “would also not consider requests to discount Treasury Bills because their maturity profiles had been set in line with government cash flows”.
And Ncube’s calls for direct engagement not only come as pressure continues to mount on President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration to make good on its US$21,5 billion liabilities. It has so far reduced its local obligations by about US$400 million from US$1, 6 billion as at the end of June, secretary George Guvamatanga told a recent Daily News breakfast meeting in Harare.
Crucially, Treasury has inked two donor and independent party or body-driven debt clearance programmes – one co-chaired by Britain, and France – under the Debt Consultative Group and another one led by the African Development Bank.
“Treasury is dealing with a large stock of unpaid obligations to suppliers… and other creditors (and) that can create public confrontations, and force unplanned, preferential payments.
“The directive can, therefore, be understood as a defensive cash-flow, liquidity-management strategy or measure. In effect, it is an administrative standstill on the enforcement of certain claims…,” economist Stephenson Dhlamini said, adding the “policy measure and announcement might not resolve the underlying revenue, and expenditure mismatch, though, and just as it signaled that the State wanted to control the process rather than deal with or face piecemeal payment steps or actions”. “But the broader meaning (could also be that) finances are under severe strain, as Treasury has to choose between creditors and paying for essential services…,” he said, before urging the government “to use the breathing space to publish its arrears, engage creditors and prioritise claims transparently, and come up with a credible payment plan or record, as the measure might actually convert a noble liquidity management plan into a broader credibility problem”.
On the other hand, Public Policy and Research Institute of Zimbabwe research fellow and economist Vincent Moyo said: “The directive could have been prompted by growing pressure (and) Treasury could be wanting, seeking to maintain direct debt verification… and avoid additional charges being added to its liabilities. Crucially, It also reinforces the treasury’s position that government debts must follow official channels and payment processes”.
“With significant government arrears, third-party collections can increase pressure on… outstanding bills and, therefore, by discouraging this practice, the government is also trying to (reduce unnecessary external pressure and) centralise creditor negotiations. Further, the real test would be whether government will provide a… credible timetable for settling verified arrears and if creditors are prevented from applying pressure without receiving their dues then the policy could be reasonably viewed as an attempt to suppress pressure rather than dealing with the underlying debt problem,” he said, adding the surprising measure, though, did not mean that Harare “was bent on avoiding or disowning its obligations”.
While these internal reforms have been hailed by global organisations such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund – and to an extent that the latter has approved the first phase of Harare’s 10-month staff-monitored programme – Guvamatanga says government has also spent ZiG60 billion-plus in settling various obligations in the first half of the year and including an equivalent of US$200 million towards external debt.
This, he says, has been enabled by the use of “fiscal surpluses generated from the first half of the year” and at a time Zimbabwe is also getting plaudits or recognition for its public spending transparency.
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