Zimbabwe governor confesses to raiding bank accounts

HARARE, Zimbabwe - Zimbabwe’s central bank governor said Monday that he took hard currency from the bank accounts of private businesses and foreign aid groups without permission, saying he was trying to keep his country’s cash-strapped ministries running.

In a statement that would be unthinkable coming from most central banks, Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono appeared to be issuing a plea to keep his job in the face of growing criticism.

Gono said it was time “to let bygones be bygones” now that Zimbabwe has a new coalition government dedicated to reversing its economic decline.

The central banker said gave the money he took from the hard currency accounts as loans to various ministries, and those private accounts would be reimbursed when the ministries repaid the loans.

He said the bank’s efforts “sustained the country” in its hour of need.

Gono’s statement showed the practice was widespread. It was first hinted at last year, when the international aid agency Global Fund threatened to cut off funds to Zimbabwe for fighting AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria unless money taken from its account was returned. The central bank returned $7.3 million to Global Fund.

The raiding of foreign currency accounts is just one of the highly questionable actions for which Gono has been sharply criticized.

In the past two years, Gono slashed 25 zeros from the local currency, printed more local money without backup reserves or assets and distributed agricultural equipment to many in President Robert Mugabe’s party who were given farms seized from whites.